conflict between the prophet muhammad and the … · conflict between the prophet muhammad and the...
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CONFLICT BETWEEN THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD AND THE MUSHR1KUN*OF' QURAYSH], DURING' THE MECCAN1 PERIOD
IN*ARABIC LITERATURE
BY
Baikie Binti Haji Abu Bakar
Thesis submitted for the Degree of M. Phil,
in the University of London
School of Oriental and African Studies
197 7
ProQuest Number: 10672648
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ABSTRACT
The objective of this study is to illustrate the religious
conflict between the Prophet Muhammad and the Mushrikun of Mecca
and to study some of the poetry which was said in connection
with the religious idea of that period. Although the study was
connected with one part of the Arabic Literature, poetry, it
is stressed more on the historical part of it,
The first chapter deals with the historical Background
of the Arabs* life before the advent of Islam, social,political,
intellectual and religious, A more detailed study was given to
the religious part of the pre-Islamic Arabs, as this is the
most important point which led to the spiritual conflict bet-
X'/een the Prophet and his fellow Qurayshites, A study of how
they came to worship idols and verses of poetry which were saidl
to glorify their idols. How did Christianity and Judaism reach
Arabia and their influences in the life of the Aratks,
The second chapter deals with the life of the Prophet Muhammad, his personality, his situation in the Deccan society,
9
his propheihood and his early message to his people. This is
then followed by the reaction of the Quraysh towards the new
religion, which did not recognise their faith and belief and
denounced their glorified and venerated idols. Why did the
Quraysh reject Islam and refused Muhammad*s prophecy? What*are their movements against the Prophet, his followers and
Islam? How did the Prophet face them? And finally the study
of those people who toolc active parts and actions in stopping
the Prophet from preaching Islam,
The sources of study are based mostly on al-Qur*an and
kufub al-tafsir as well as historical and Arabic literary sources,
Quranic verses are translated with the help of the translation
of al-Qur*an by Muhammad Yusuf *Ali, Pickthall and others.
Wabillahi al-taufiq..
*4“
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Praise "be to Allah the Almighty who has given me the strength
and ability to complete this thesis.
My utmost grateful thanks are due to my supervisor Mr D Cowant
who had shown me his kindness and patience, assisted me in every
angle of my work, and had been a great help to me throughout
the years of my study.
My thanks to Dr M A Shaban, Reader of Arabic and Islamic Studies,
Exeter University for being so kind to me and permitted me to
use whatever books I needed from his own collection as well as
the books from the Arabic rooms of the Exeter University main
Library.
My thanks too to Mr 'Abdullah 'Abd al-Jabbar and my husband
without whose help and courage the thesis would not be com
pleted.
Wabillahi al-tawfiq
Balkis binti Haji Abu Bakar
July 1977
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
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CONTENTS'
Abstract 2
Aden owl e dgement s 4
L
The Jahiliyah T
The Background of the Pre-Islamic Arabs
a. The Social Life 9
b. The Political Background 19'
c. The Religious Background 24
d. Religious Customs 63
e • The Intellectual Life 71
LI
The Prophet1s Life before Islam and the
Revelation
a* Mecca before Islam 75"'
b . Muhammad
1, His boyhood
2* His marriage
3. His Place among the Quraysh ^4
c. The Revelation 86"
1, The Earliest Converts 92
2* The Early Converts 94
81
8183.
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Page
CHAPTER 111
':i- ■' comparative Study of Shirk and Islam 103
The Conflict 114
a. The Prophet*s early message 114°
h. The Insulting Verses 12I1
c# The Quraysh*s movement against the r25_i
Prophet Muhammad
d. The End of the Persecution V44
e* The Scoffers (al~Mustahzi*un) T49
Conclusion# 157
Bihliography 162
CHAPTER XI
The Jahiliyah
J&hiliyah is usually known to be the period before the
emergence of Islam, It is commonly used by historians and writers
to designate the pre-Islamic period of the Arabs, The word .jahiliyah
which is derived from jahl, is defined literally as ignorance,
the opposite of knowledge. The literal def in it at ion of .jahiliyah
(the age of ignorance) did not imply the reality of the intellec
tual life of the pre-Islamic Arabs, as they were not ignorant
people. Among them were poets, who are recognised by historians
as their leading men in war and peace. They were great merchants
and experienced astronomers as well,
1What does jahiliyah mean? Ibn Manzur' in his interpretation-
of the Prophet *s tradition innaka amruun fika jaliliyah said
that the .jahiliyah is the situation of the Arabs before the
advent of Islam, which includes their ignorance of Allah, HisProphet and His religion, as well as their attitudes in the life
which are full of pride, hatred, warr,revenge and all other2aspects of their life. 3n his book Muslim Studies, Ignaz Gold-
V *ziher explains the word jahiliyah as the time of barbarism, because
1, Ibn Manzur, Lis an al-»*Arab,vol sll,p, 130.2, Ignaz Goldziher, Muslim Studies,volsi,p.202,
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according to him, the Prophet Muhammad wanted to contrast the1Islam that he preached with babarism, Hitti gave a rather
similar interpretation of the word as the period of ignorance
or babarism, in which-period Arabia was neither ruled by any Aconstitution nor by any religion*
Quotations from al-Qur'an imply the definitions of .jahiliyah
in different ways* Sometimes it comes in the meaning of foo«-
lishness and stupidity as said in surat al~Baqarah (the Gow),
"VJhen Moses said to his people, Allah commands you to sacrifice
a cow, they replied, 'Are you making game of us*?* Allah forbids2that I should be so foolish.” Sometimes it has the meaning
of ignorance* Allah says in surat al-Maidah (the'"Table),
"Is it pagan laws that they wish to be judged by? Mho is a3better judge than Allah for men whose faith is firm?” That
is the laws of the pagan Arabs which deviated from the truth
and were full of oppression and discrimination among them in
their catagories of life.
In some verses of poetry the word jahl gives the meaning
of wildness which contrasted the word hilm,m
ala la yajhalan ahadun 'alaina
fanajhalft fauqa 1- jahli 1-jahilxna
1* Hitti, History of the Arabs,p*87*>2. Surat al-Baqarah,67*3. Surat al-Maidah, 50 •
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May no one act wildly against us, "because we then would excel
the wildness of those acting wildly*
In another verse the poet said, ('THuiit)‘ * ^V —fa^in Iconta nruhtajan. 11 a 1—hilmi innani • •
xla 1-jahli fx ha,di 1-ahayxni -ahwaju■■m # •
Though I need mildness, at times If need wildness ( jahl) even
more*
Most Muslim writers tend to regard the conditions of the
Arabs before Islam as jahiliyah, which includes the state of
paganism.and polytheism among them as well as their state of
social, political life which were.based on hatred, revenge,
pride and war with one- another*
The Background of ,-the Fre-Islamic Arabs
The Social Life
Generosity is one-of the most distinctive character of
an Arab. It is believed to have been born through the hard
life of the deserts. The nature of the desert with its hard
and difficult life, produced such character, which led the rich
to slaughter his camel to feed the poor, or led the host to
slaughter his oMi camel fof the guests who might appear unexpectedly
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from the wondering desert* The most famous personality known
for his generosity is Hatim at-Tai• He was also one of the
well-known pre-Islamic poets* Most of his poetry manifested
his generosity* It is related that he usually slaughtered ten
of his camels at every month of Rajah for guests and friends1and all those around him* He was the poet who told his. slave
to put on fire during the cold, freezing night, so that some
desert wanderers might notice it and come to him for food and2protection* Said he,
auqid fainnal-laila lailun qirru (
warrihu ya waqidu rlhun sirru * « •Put on fire, for the night is cold and the wind, oh waqid ( one
who puts on fire is chill*
•alia yara naralca man yamurru
in jalabta daifan faanta hurru « *
Somebody who passes hy might see your fire* If you bring in
a guest you are a freeman.
Besides Hatim at-'l’ai there were many others who were famous « * *for their generosity, such were * Abdullah ibn Jad'an of Quraysh
— 3who was known as hasi al-dhahab* for his golden cup which he
1* Al-Alusl.Bulugh al-Arab fI Ma’rifat ahwal al-* Arab,voltl,p * 73 *2. Ibid,p*78.3* Ibid,ppv72-99 *
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used for his drinks, Har#un ibn Sinan of Ghatafan, 'Abdullah ibnat *1Hajib al-Anbari who was known^akilu 1-khubz, Qays ibn Sa'd,- 2 Qatadah ibn Maslamah al-Hanafi and others.
• •
Another well-known character of the Arab society was their
faithfulness. Whenever a promise was made by one person of the
tribe, the whole tribe would stick to the promise and would
not break it whatever the consequences were.
The pre-Islamic Arabs were also notorious fatS" being heavy
drinkers. Verses of pre-Islamic poetry show clearly the habit
of drinking within the society. It was alleged that some of
them would erect a tent somewhere in the town and put a flag
on top of it as a symbol of the tent being'used as a drinking
place. A man would spend his money and his wealth to satisfy
his drinking habit and would boast proudly for the money and
time he spent in drinking places.
'Antarah ibn Shaddad said in his mu'allaqahs^ ( Kttwul)
faidha sharibtu fainnani raustahlikun
mali wa 1irdx wafirun lam yuklami
And when I drank I am the consumer of my wealth and jt?vtxj-;eVvon;ai\r
ase plentiful3and are not slashed.
1. Akilu al-khubz, the one kho eats bread. He did not eat dates and did not drink milk. Bread to the Arabs of the time was considered as respectable food. It had been the pride of his tribe to say minna akilu l-khubz.
2. Al-Alusi,op.c it.volsi,pp.72-99•3. Al-AnbarI,Sharh al-qasaid al-sab' al-tiwal,pp.337-9.
waidha sahautu fama uqassiru 'an nada» m * «
wakama 'alimti shamaili wa takarrumi
And when I recover I will no*b abstain from the act of generosity/
you knew my good qualities and my honour,- - 1 Said Abu Mihjan al-Thaqafi in his verses:
idha rauttu fadfinni ila asli karmatin
turami izamx ba'da mauti 'uruquha «
If I died, bury me near a grapevine, so its roots would water
my bones after my death,
wala tadfinnl bil-falati fainnanl
alchafu idha ma muttu an la adhuqaha
Do not bury me in waterless desert for I am afraid when I died
I might not taste it (wine or beer)
2*Abdulla ibn Jad'an saids
sharibtu 1-khamra hatta qala sahbS
alasta 1 ani 1-safahi bimustafiqi X drank wine until my friend said, are you not awake of the
foolishness,
wahatta an uwassada fi manami
anamu lahu siwa at-tirbi s-sahiqi
Until I put my head on a pillow and lost in a dream of a far
axmy friend.
1, Al-QprtubT, Jam!* ahfcam al-Qur* an,vols3,p,56,• «2« Ibn Habib,al-Muhabbar,p .340•
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wahatta aghlaqa 1-hanutu rahni
wa anlcartu l~faduwwa min al~sadiqi
and till the drinking place is closed and I could not distinguish
an enemy from a friend.
Maisir was another manifestation of the pre-Islamic society.
It was as described by one of the Quranic interprators, Qimar 1ahl al-jahiliyah, the gambling of the jah.iliyun. It is defined
by Hans Wehr in his dictionary as a game of chance played with
arrows without head and feathering for stakes of slaughtered2and quartered camel. This game is usually played in winter,
- 3as illustrated by al-* Asha in his verse:
al-mutfimu al-daifa idha ma shatau C Sav-4 ’ 3• *wa 1~ jafilu 1-quta *ala 1-yasiri
Those who feed the guest when it is winter, and provide food
to the yasir.^ (for distribution)
The players most of whom were wealthy and rich would select
a very cold night, where guests were expected to arrive, and
would light a fire as a sign of their gathering. A winner of the
game would usually divide the meat among his guests, his people,
the poor and the needy and those who were around, in search of
1. ' Abd al-Salam Muhammad Harun, al-Maisir wa l-azlam,p.ll.2. Hans Wehr, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, ed. J.
Milton Wo wan,p.407*3. Ibn Qutaibah, al-Maisir wa l-qidah,p.44«4 . Yasir, the man who was responsible for the division of meat
in a gambling game.
ipraise and appreciation. Al-Waqidi nelated' that a player might
gamble a hundred camels in a gathering and gain a considerable
amount of wealth which he then distributed to the needy and in
return he would be glorified and praised by the people. On the
other hand the gambling place might as well turn out to be a
centre of strife, struggle, fight, quarrel and dispute, when
a player not satisff'edwith the game.
Women were treated well by the Arabs. They shared their
husbands* responsibilities in keeping the families. They stood
behind the front line in wars and encouraged their men to fight,
to the last drop of their blood. They cooked the food, received
the guests and also gave their ideas and opinions in whatever
matters concerning their husbands and always supported the*v\ -
L . v-Js in all their missions. They were often mentioned in
poetry, where they were poi-trayed as possessing greatness and
beauty. Despite the status given to them, women were also used
largely and f&eeTy by men to fulfil', their sexual satisfaction.
Adultery was not illegal and men would boast1; themselves of being
lovers of women; and adutlerers. Among those famous of being
lovers of the Arabs was Tmru ul-Qays, the poet, who>was knowni
to have sexual relationship with several women, some of whom
1• Fakhr al-Dim al-Raal, Tafsir, vol: 2, p .22!.
were Fatimah "bint al-'Abid ibn Tha'labah ibn 'Amir al~Udhrayah
and Umm 1-Harith al-Kalbiah.^
Another well-known phenomenon of the pre—Islamic society2was al-waf&, to bury a baby girl in a grave alive, This habit
of burying their girls alive was not a widespread factor of the
pre-Islamic society. It was practised by some tribes but un
acceptable among others'. The most famous tribe to have practised!
al-wa*d was banu Tamim, followed by Mudar and Khuza * ah, The' " *
motive of their action was merely fear of
as well as the believe that by having girls in the family, their
sources of income would diminish. It was also related that some
of them would also bury the boys during fhmine.^ A tradition
on the authority of Abu Bakr al-Hudhali relates that Sa*sa'ah# «
ibn Majitj,&VbFaraz&aq.1 s grandfather, was the saver of the wa1 idatIthat when he went to meet the Prophet with Tamimfs delegation,
he was believed to have rescued four hundred girls’ from their
death. It was on this basis that Farazdaq. boasted in* one of
his verses*wajaddi 1-ladhi mana’a l-wa’idati C Mu-Va
wa ahya l-wa'ida falam yuadit
And my grandfather who prevented the burying of girls, and res
cued the lives of boysjso that they were not buried.
1 • Ibn Qutaibah, al-shli'r wa l-shu’ara' ,vol:l,p,122.2, Ibn Manzur,op.c it.vol* 3,pp * 442-3,3. Al-Qurtubi,op,cit,volsl0,p,117«4* Ihn Manzur,op,cit,,pp,442-3,5 • Al-Isfahani, al-Aghani, vol s ‘19, pp, 2-5«6, Ibn Manzur,op,cit,pp,442—3*
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The Arabs were acquinted with different types of marriage.
The first of which was the single marriage (al-sawaj al-fardi)
xtfhich was widespread among the Arabs and followed by the Quraysh
and most of the tribes. This marriage contract was usually
made between the suitor and the womanfs guardian, and her con*-
sent was not necessary. At the same time the Arabs were allowed
to marry as many wives as they wished without any/ limitation 2011 their number,.';. One might have ten wives or more. Another
type of marriage was ' -sawa.i al-maqt. This marriage always
took place after the death of a father, who left behind him a
widow or wi&oitfs. The son or the heir had the right to inherit
his father's property as well as his wife. He had the full
power over her. He could marry her himself with the marriage
settlement of his deceased father, forbid her from marrying
others or marry her to anyone he wished and take the dowry him
self. Those men who married their father*s wives were called
daysan. Aus ibn Hajar al-Tamimi said his verse taunting a
family of Banu Qays ibn Tha*labah x^hose three sons married the3father's wife one after another:
niku Fakihata warcishu haula qubbatihaT C fodSiV") fakullukum liabihi days an^n salafu
1. Al-Alusi,op.cit.vol:2,p.5«2. Ibid.3. Ibid,p.52.
j
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Have intercourse with Fakihah and walk around her pavilion,
everyone of you is his father*s day z an.9
1There was also a marriage called mut'ah, This marriage
contract was usually done "between the man and the woman to be
married. The marriage would last for a certain period of time
as agreed by both husband and wife, , . When the period expired the marriage would end too. This is a kind of temporary mar
riage which was common among the Arabs and was always performed
|»n certain circumstances and with special intention of doing
so. Other types of marriage which occucred in the pre*AIslamic
society were zawa.j al-akhdan and zawa.j al-shighar.^ The first
was when a woman married a couple of men at the same time. When
she gave birth to a child, she would call the men and name the
child after any one of them and he had to accept this, and there
would be no way for him to escape from" the responsibility.
The latter was a marriage where a father offered his daughter
to another man to be married, without a dowry, in return for
the same kind of marriage.
It had been the law among the Arabs to forbid themselves
fr vt marrying their daughters, mothers, sisters and aunts,wdtfeh;
1. W. Robertson Smith, Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, pp•82^3 •
2. Al-Alusi,op.cit.p.4*
one exception of a case, where the chief of the Banu Tamim,
named Ha jib i'bn 'Zurarah, married his own daughter. He named
her after Chosroes’s daughter Dakhtanus and recited these 1verses:
ya laita shi'ri fanki Dakhtanus Cidha ataha 1-khabaru 1-marmus
If only I knew how to be away from you Dakhtanus, when the sec
retive news came to her
atashabu al-aailaini am tamTsala bal tamisu innaha farus
Are you to disappear from my sight or to walk with proud, swing
ing gait, no, but walks with proud, swinging gait that she is
a bride.
This is the only case which happens to be related and the Arabs
were always aware of this type of marriage in respect of their
close relationship. Another type of marriage which happened
rarely among the Arabs, was to marry both sisters at the same
time. The first man to do that xras Abu Janhah Sa'id ibn»
'Asim,^
The Arabs were described as being brave. This bravery,
which was found in almost every one of them, must have been
born within themselves through their difficult ways of survival
1, Al-Alusx, op • c.it .vol s 2, p . 52.2, Ibid,p.52.
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Most of their life was spent in battlefields. Skirmishes arose
between a tribe and another without any good and acceptable
reasons, A tribe was proud of its brave warriors and fighters
who had died in defending the honour of the tribe, ¥erses: of'
poetry were always composed to manifest this bravery. The pre-
Islamic wars were usually called al-ayyam, because wars on those
days were usually fought for months and years. The most famous
of al-ayyam was .• yaumi al-Basus, between the tribes of Tagbl'ih:1and Baler, which lasted for forty years. The war carried on
by raiding and plundering until both tribes were exhausted and
with the help of King Mundhir 111 of Hira,the war was brought
to an end.
The Political Background
The pre-Islamic Arabia, as obviously mentioned by sources,
had had no single government which governed it, and there had
never been a single man who was declared or recognised to be
its ruler before the establishment of the Islamic State at
Madina. There were, of course, settlements which were governed
by some recognised kings as those in Yemen, Kinda and other
communities bordering on the Roman and the Persian Empires.
The only type of political system known to the Arabs, in most
of Arabia, was a tribal system.
1. Al-Ya'qubT, Tarikh,vol't 1, p . 225 •
The tribal system
Tribal solidarity was an essential factor for survival
in the desert. For that reason one can see from their’history
that members of a tribe were related closely and tied together
to the extent that all members were responsible for whatever
action taken by one of them, whether if uas good or bad. At
the same time the victory of one member was the victory for
all,
The tribe was usually based on kinship, but there were
also other types of solidarity such as hilf and wala1', Tha
first type of solidarity^ was; considered to be the most powerful
and the closest of all. , The kinship was usually divided into'
two: // vc Na. The male kinship (’asabiyat al—ubuv^ah)
This is the relationship .cm the fathers’s side, Fhthers
were looked upon highly in the Arab society. It was related
that a man from Azd was circumambulating the K a ’bah and praying
for his father only when a man asked him, "Why don’t you pray
for your mother too?1" The man answered ' 7 "She is from Tamim,
b. The female kinship ('asabiyat al-khu'ulah)#
Although male kinship was more highly' esteemed' among the
Arabs, they, at the same time, respected the rights of women,
and called the relationship ion their mothers’ side
1. Ibn al-Athlr, al-Kamil fl al-tarikh,vol;l,p,198.
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Asabiyat al-khu'ulah. There were several written oases, where•. -
female kinship was more important tlmn the male. One was the
victory of the Madinese, who were related to the Prophet Muhammad
from his mother's side, in persuading" him to migrate to Madina.
It was their enthumsiastic feeling towards Islam, that encouraged
the Prophet Muhammad to leave his homeland and flee to success.
There were also certain cases where tribes were named after
their mothers instead of their fathers.
The hilf
Confederacy or mutual oaths, united tribes regardless of'
their origin. This type of solidarity was usually formed when
a tribe became weak and could not gain support from their own
kinsmen. To maintain their survival, they had to find a stronger
tribe and form a confederation. Members of the confederacy.'
were treated’ equally and given the same responsibilities.
The wala*5
The wala* was the relationship between the Arabs and non-
Arabs who lived among them. The non-Arabs were usually known
as mawali. Similarly, the prisoners of war, who could not
affbrd to ransom themselves, were also called mawal 1... These
mawali were always named after the tribes to which they were
related.
1 2The tribal system followed by the Arabs, nomads^ and settled,
was actually a democratic system of government, but not in the
wider sense as it is known today. Sach tribe had its own leader
who was called sayyid or sheikh 1-qabilah. The sheikh: was elected
from among the senior members of the tribe, and had to possess;
certain characteristics acceptable to all. He had to have a
strong personality, come from the most influential and respected
family, so that he would be respected by all the members. He
had to have wisdom and knowledge, so that he would lead his
tribe to their objectives. At the same time he had to be S'
strong and courageous man, because he was their commander in"
warr and he needed firm determination, for a word of his could
lead to war between his tribe and the other surrounding tribes-.
He had to be the host to the guests of his tribe, and had to
sacrifice his own camels for such guests. In this particular
sense, the chief of the tribe had to be a generous man. When
the chief lost all these features, he would be dismissed and
a new chief appointed.
I1.. The nomads or badu were the migrant people, who lived in tents
and moved from one place to another in search of water and grass-, not only for themselves, but also for their hei-ds which were all important1 for their survival.
2, The settled or haflar were the permanent residents of valleysand villages of the Hijaz, such as Mecca, Ta1ifand Madina. They• * twere traders and agriculturists, as well as other permanent occupation.
Ohe remarkable fact about the system was that the leadership
of the tribe or the post of sheikh was not a hereditary post,
in which a son could succeed to his father’s leadership* Rarely
can it be found that the leadership stayed in the same family^
till more than two persons. To this point, 'Amir ibn Tufail,#who was the son of the chief said these versess1
wa innl wain kuntu-bna sayyidi * Amiri, v ( \ )if 'wafarisaha 1-mashhura fi kulli maukibi
Although X am the son of the chief ’Amir, and their celebrated horseman in every procession.
fama sauwadatni 1 Amirun ’an wirathati *
aba Allahu an asmvu bi ummin xml a abi
’Amir did not make me chief by succession, Allah refused that I gain eminence through mother and father,
walakinnani ahmi himaha wa attaql
adhaha waarmi man ramaha bimanlcibi
But I always protect its territory, and slum that which harms
it, and fight those xfho fight it with my own shoulder.
Besides the sheikh 1-qabilah. the tribe had a body of elec
ted men, who were regarded as representatives of all
1. Al-Alusi,op.cit.vol:3,p.l28. See also al-Mas’udl, Murujal-dhahab,vol:2,p.55, where the verses were related in slightly different words.
.--CA M «?Mthe members. They were called mashwkhat l-q.abilah, and their""V ... '
presence was to control and minimise the power of the sheikh
to a certain level, so that all decisions he made, would not
he his own, hut those of the tribe as a whole. The prosperity
of the qabilah was entirely in the hands of the sheikh and hfs-
governing body, If they were strong and courageous leaders,
the tribe would prosper, but if they were weak, the tribe would
collapse*
The Religious Background
The religious background of the pre-Islamic Arabs can be
divided into certain^groupss The idol-worshippers, the hunafa1,■i o
the Jews, the Christians and other religious traditions and
cultures*
The idol-worshippers
The idol-worshippers were the people who took other than*
God (Allah) as'their symbol of worship. This habit of worship
ping creatures, images and stones had, spread widely among the
Arabs of the Peninsula centuries before Islam* The early his*-
tory of the Arabs indicated that they were true believers in
God, in the era of Ibrahim and Ishmael* But their monotheism
stood up only for a short period, when after the death of Ishmael
they slowly turned to the worship of images and stones and
finally idols.
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Many of these activities of worship, took place in Mecca,
which was regarded as a centre of religious activity and move
ments, because of the Ka’bah (Sacred House) which is sited
there and because of its position as a centre of a trade route
which linked the northern and southern parts of the Peninsula.
As a religious tradition, the Arabs assembled in Mecca every
year, at a certain and limited period of the year, to perform
the pilgrimage and visit the Sacred House.
Ibn al-ICalbi, the author of the Book of Idols, and other
authorities of the second century after the advent of Islam,
put more than one theory to explain the beginning of the idol
worshippers in Arabia. In his book, Ibn al-Kalbl, relates;
that the visit to the Ka'bah was a turning point which led the
Arabs to the x^orship of images and stones. Before setting out
on a journey, Jttvp Arab would take with him a stone from the
vicinity of the Sacred House as a token of reverence to it,
and as a sign of deep affection for Mecca. Whenever he settled
at any place, he would erect the stone and circumambulate it
as he had circumambulated the Ka'bah, seeking its blessing and
affirming his affection and respect for it. Over a period oftVi€,
time, this led them to(worship of whatever took their fancy,
Unconciously they substituted a different religion for that
of Ibrahim^
1. Ibn al-Kalbi, Kitab al-Asnam,p.6.
-26-
Another tradition suggests that idol worship was a practice
unknown to the sons and followers of Ishmael and the man cre
dited with the introduction of images and idols to the Arabs
was *A'mr ibn Luhayy. He was Abu Khuza'ah and he possessed the
custody of the Ka'bah after killing the Jurhumites and banish
ing them from Mecca. In a hadith related by Abu Huraynah-, the
Apostle revealed the story of 'Amr ibn Luhayy in which he said«
to Aktham ibn Juan al-Khussa'i, "OhI' Aktham, I saw 'Amr ibn Luhayy
dragging his intestines in hell, and never did I see two men
so much alike as you and him!" "Hill this resemblance injure
me?" "Ho," said the Apostle, "for you are a believer and he
is an infidel. He was the first to change the religion of
Ishmael, to set up idols, and institute the custom of bahirah,*— - - - 1saibah, wasilah and hami." Once this 'Amr ibn Luhayy was
* • *
sick, and made a journey to al-Balqa', in Syria, for the pur
pose of healing his sickness which could be cured only by ta
king a bath in a hot spring there. During his stay in al-Balqa',
he noticed the inhabitants of the place worshipping idols and
asked; them about the matter. Answering his question they told
him, "To them we pray for rain, and from them we seek victory 2over the enemy1.' He requested them for a few of those idols,
1. Ibn Ishaq,The life of the Prophet, transs A Guillaume,p.53* 2-. Ibn al-Kalbi,op.cit.p.7«
-27-
and was given some, which he took with him to Mecca and erected
them around the Ka*bah. From that time onwards the Arabs began
worshipping idols, and this practice spread later on throughout
the Hi jaz and all over the Peninsula, until there was not a *single house ini Mecca without any sign of idols..
The changes in the ways of worshipping did' not stop’ therm
from performing their devotional practices which had ©ome downi
ftom Ibrahim'and Ishmael. They kept on visiting the house and
performing c ircumambulat ion, standing on *Arafah and Muzdalifah,
sacrificing she-camel and raising their voices: in acclama
tion of the pilgrimage. At the same time introducing elements-
which had no place im the religion of Ibrahimw Thus when they
performed the pilgrimage, they used to say in their crys (
labaika 1-lahumrna labbailc
labbailca la sharika lak
ilia sharilcun huwa lak
tamlikuhu wama malak
At your service, oh God, at your service, You have n&> associate,
but the associate you have, you own him and what he owns.
Through their worshipping idols, the Arabs did not have
the intention of replacing God with other creatures, or liken- .
ing the powers of their worshipped elements with the incomparable
1. Ibn Ishaq,op.cit.p.36.
power1 of' G6d, Because of their deep reverence for him and tho
rough respect for His supremacy, they felt that, it was not in
their position, as created beings, to worship God without any
Media. So images, stones and idols; were taken as Media between
God and them. Thus, instead of praying to God and calling upon
Him to fulfil their entreaties, they turned their faces towards
the idols, revealing their sorrow and happiness* asking their
protection, requiring them to perform their requests, hoping1that the idols would communicate their messages to God. Such
u^onwas the situation agree dy(by the former generation^ as described
pin4h& Qur'an:"We worship them only that they.,mayrbring us near unto
Allah."
Therefore it can be concluded that the Arabs* idolatary
was different from idolatories of other nations, who, in their
worshipping of idols and images, recognised the divinity of the.
said elements, while the Arabs, in worshipping those elements',
never recognised the divinity and supremacy of the idols, but
worshipped them as media only, with the belief in God*s supre-3macy over themselves. Allah reveals inihA Qur'an:
1. Al-IlusI,op.cit.p.213.2. Surat al-Zumar,3.3. SUratYusuf,106.
"And most of them "believe not in Allah without associating-
(others) as partners with Him."
The idols worshipped by the Arabs were made of various
materials as well as of various shapes and forms* Some weremerely shapeless stones, while others were stone, golden, silver
or wooden images’.in the forms of human beings, animals or birds*
They even had images made of dates as the one worshipped by
the banu Hanifah. It so happened that they were struck by famine,
and having nothing to eat, some members of the tribe took the1idol and ate it* A poet said in his verses
akalat Hanifatu rabbaha ( 0
samanu t-taqahhumi wa l-maja'aWi.
The men of banu Hanifah ate their god,
at the time of difficulties and famine*
Ibn 1-Kalbi, in his book, divided the idols worshipped
by the Arabs into three typess al-ansab, al-asnam and al-authan. '■ ’’ ’ ' ''#n —i«m«* 2 -According to his definition* al-ansab were shapeless stones*T~
which were put to worship circumambulate and sacrifice.
The circumambulation around it was called al-dauwar* Al-authan
were storle statues or images in the form of human beings while
al-asnam were wooden, golden or silver images put to worship
1* 1Abdullah TAbd al-Jabbar, Qissat al-adab fi 1-Hijaz,p*202.• • «
2. Ibn al-^albi, op.cit*p*33*
-30-
and sacrifice*
The images introduced by ,Amr ibn Luhayy, in the early
era of idolatry, were Wadd, Suwa*, Yaghuth, Ya’uq, and Nasr,"*'
which were actually the images worshipped and adored by the p
people of Noah during his period of prophecy* They are mentioned- 2 in al-Qnr'an as Allah says:
"And they have said to each other, abandon not your gods,
abandon neither Wadd, nor Suwa * neither Yaghuth nor Ya*uq nor
Nhsr, They have misled many, and grant you no increase to the
wrongdoers but in straying (from their mark)*11 It was alleged
that the first man to adopt those idols among the sons of Ishmael
was Hudhail ibn Mudrikah. They adopted Suwa* and had it in
Ruhat, a place near Yanbu*. The custody of Suwa1 was in the
hand of the Banu Lthyan who worshipped it. Later on they were3followed by Mudar, A poet says describing the occasion:
tarahum find qiblatihim *ukufan C
kama *alcafat Hudhailu fala suwa*i
You can see them secluding themselves, as the Hudhail secluded
themselves around Suwa1,The adoption of Suwa* brought other tribes to worship the other
four images# Wadd was worshipped by the Banu Kalb and it was
1, Ibn al-Kalbi,op,cit,p,l8,2, Surat Nuh, 23-24*3, Al-AlusI,op.cit .vol :2,p,31‘ff* In Kitab al-asnam, the word
qibla in the verse is related as qail which means chief,t H H H n n m w ia —lVfoa*— i mi in
placed at Daumat l-Jan&al. Yaghuth was taken by the trihes of
Mazhij and Jurash*, The tribe of Khaiwan took Y a ’uq. and placed ♦
it in a village not far from San’a*. While Nasr was worshipped•a
Iby the Himyar at Balkha1'., Traditions related that those five
idols were the statues of five righteous men, who died in the
same months One of their kinsmen suggested that they huild a
monument to commjprate their righteousness* and integrity. So*
the statues were sculptured^ Relatives visited them. Finally,2the ancestors worshipped them.
Besides those five images, which received less attention
in a later period, especially "by the Meccans and the people of'
Hijas, the Arabs worshipped other idols which wereasc&tter&d <*■
widely* around Mecca. It seems that the lesser attention given
to those mentioned idols, was because of their remotenessfrom Mecca, which did not encourage the Meccans, espe
cially, from visiting visiting them.
There were three f&mous idols which were worshipped by
most of the population of the Peninsula. These three'were men
tioned in al-Qur'an and the Arabs always named their sons after
th.^Vn * : . They were al-Lat, 'Manat, and al-’uzza. ATlafti
1. Ibn al-Kalbi, op.cit.pp.10-11.2.. Ibid, p. 5 ••
-32-
Isays:
"Have you thought upon al-Lat, al^Uzza and Manat, the
third, the other? one? Are yours the males and His the females?1yv
That indeed waSe an unfair division*‘*f The Arabs always const-•ft.dered those three idols as goddesses and said that they were
the daughters of God*
The eldest of the three idols, as related by Ibn al—KalbH,
was Manat. This Manat was sited by the seashore, in the direc
tion of al-Mushallal, in Qudayd, on the pilgrim route from
Madina to Mecca. It was magnified by all the Arabs, especially
the Aus and the IChazraj, the two tribes of Madina. Those coming'
from Madina and places surrounding it often made sacrifices
and offered thexx'* gifts? to it. The veneration of the Aus and
the Khazraj was so greatt that it cannot be compared., It was re
lated that they would not shave their heads after completing
the oircumambulation (of the Kabbah), standing in prayer at
*Arafah and completing the rites at Mina, unless they went to
Manat . . crying labbaykx. A verse of poetry was composed to— 2express their great respect for Manat, in which a poet says:
inni halaftu yamlna sidq.ro barratdn ( Kam\\)
bimanata 1ind mahalli aali l~khazraji
I swore a sincere and true oath, by Manat, at the sacred place
of the IChazraj.
1. Surat an-Najm,19-22. ,2. Ibn al-Kalbi,op.cit.p.14*
-33-
Al-La,t was then adopted by the Arabs as their goddess. It
was a cubic rock standing in Taif. Its custody was in the hand
of the banu 'Attab ibn Malik of the Thaqif. The Quraysh as
well as the other Arabs venerated it and used to called their
children Zaidullat, and Taimullat. The idol's name was mentioned1in the verse of 'Amr ibn 1-Ju’ayd, who says*
uIn forswearing wine X am like Him,who has abjured al-feat, although he was once its devotee,39
Likewise it was by its name too that Aus ibn Hajr swore in hi:s;- - - 2verse after its destruction by 'Ali ibn Abi Talibs
*
By al-Lat and al-'Uzza and those i*ho follow their religion,
And by A l l a h , i s the greatest of them all, n
AT-*Uzza which was situated in a valley in NakhlaV*, wasvenerated by all the tribes of the Arabs and it seems that they
did not offfer to any of the idols anything like their venerat.iom
of al-"Ufeaa., To'the Quraysh it was the greatest idol among
all. They travelled for its sake, offered gifts to it, and
sought its favours through sacrifices. When they circumambula-3ted the Ka'bah they were wont to raise their voices and says
iVi « -By al-Lat and al-'Ufcza,
and Manat the third besides,
they were the most exalted females*))and their intercession is to be sought.,.
1 Ibn al-Kalbi, op,oit. pvl4.-2. Ibid.3 * AT-AlusI,op.c it.pv 28,
A'l-'Usza also had a place of sacrifice called al-»Ghabghab,
where they offered their oblations* Al-Hudhali speaks of it
in a satire he composed against a certain man who married a- 1beautiful woman named Asma*, he saidr
u _
Asma * was given as a dowry the head of a little red cow,
which a man of the banu Gfhanm had sacrif ised*,
He saw a blemish in her eye when he led her away,
to al-Ghabghab, al-'Uzza^s slaughter place, and divided>)her into goodly portion*
Tradition related that there were hundreds of idols erected
around the Ka'bah and inside it, at the time when^Prophet Muhammad
recaptured it from the mushrikun^Mecoa. The enormous number-
of idol's to be there, was probably due to the strong belief of
the Arabs in those idols as their intercessors* Almost every
tribe of them had its own idol set up around the Ka'bah, and
those tribes which could not afford to build an idol, would put
stones and worshipped them as well as offered them sacrifices*.
The most celebrated of the idols erected around the Ka'bah;
was Hubal... It was believed to have been brought there by2IChuzaimah ibn Mudrikah^ and it was known as Hubal Khusaimahu
It was in the shape of a. human being, with a broken left hand
1* Ibn Ishaq.,op.cat*p*28*•>
2. Ibn al~Kalbi,op.cit *p*28*.
and the Quraysh substituted for it a hand of gold. It was-
said to have been made of strings of agate beads. He stood
over a dry fountain into which of fife rings were thrown. At his
feet were seven divining arrows. It was Hubal that the Meccans,
especially,, consulted^whether they should or should not some
thing. It was to^ Hubal that the Prophet’s grandfather was; to>
sacrifice his son ’Abdullah, but he was stopped and asked to
consult God about it# Finally ’Abdullah was changed for a hun
dred camels. It was this idol1 s~ name also that Abu Sufyan. ibm
Harb mentioned during the Uhud victory, when he said: "Be lofty,* •0 Hubal!'"* 1
They also had Isaf and Nailah, by the place of Z'amsam,
and sacrificed beside them. They were a man and a woman of Jurhum
who were guilty of sexual relations in the Ka’bah and whom God
transformed into two stones. The reality of this story is nott
known, but it was alleged that 'Arnra daughter of *Abd al-Rahman
said, "I heard ’Aishah say , We always heard that Isaf and
Hailah were a man and a woman of Jhrhum who copulated in the
Ka’bah, so God transformed them into two stones. But God alone 2knows the truth#."' Abu Talib swore by their names, when he
1. Ibn al-Kalbx,op.cit.p.19*2. Ibn Ishaq,op,cit.p.38#
saids^
Where the pilgrims make their camels kneel,
where the waters flow from Isaf' and Wail ah* )}
Apart from the tribal deities, it is said that every house
hold in Mecca had an idol of their own which' they worshipped"
and magnified. It had been a habit for them that when a mam
was about to set out on a journey he would rub> himself against
it and when he returned fbom his journey, the first thing he
did, was to rub himself against it again, before going in for
his family. This habit was practised in the hope that the idols
might protect them from any disasters in their journey, and
as a sign of their respect and thanks for the idol * s protection,
after their safe return’.
When a man was Gn his journey and camped somewhere on his:
way, he would collect four stones, choose the best of these and
make it his god and use the other three to put his pot upom.
The god was then worshipped, circumambulated around it, and
made sacrifices at it. When he departed he left the stone,
and did the same thing at every place he camped’.
The Arabs also venerated houses (buyut), as mentioned by'
ibn al-K&lbi iir his book. They became eventually shrines or
temples where some of the idols were housed. Other sources
1. Ibn Ishaq, op. c it. p »38 *.
describe them as tawaghit, and refer to some of the famous *
deities as sof Such was al»Lat. It is no doubt that the Ka'bah
was venerated by all the Arabs of the Peninsula. It was there
that they went every year to perform their pilgrimage and it
was there too- that they always met in peace because killing and
fighting were forbidden within the haram or vicinity of the•*Shored House. Like the Ka,!bah the other houses or shrines had
their own haram too. Among other houses-which were of less im-•*r ~ r~"portance and venerated by certain tribes only were, Riam or Riyam
(as related in Ibn a l - K a l b i ) T h i s house belonged to the Himyar
and was situated in San'a*. Rudha which was possessed by bamr
Rabi'ah ibn Ka'b ibn Sa'd ibn Zaid Manat. It was its name that
al-Mustaughir mentioned im his verses wI smashed Rudha so completely that,
1 t>1 left it a black ruin m a hollow.
The verse was recited after Rudha was destroyed by the poet• ,
himself. Dhu l~Khalasah, this house was mentioned by ibn al-*Kalbi as one of the idols, but Ibn Kathir put it as one of the
houses venerated by the Arabs. It belonged to the bani Daus,
Khath'am and Bajilah. It was also venerated by the Arabs of
the area, in Tabalah. There were other houses venerated by dif
ferent tribes of the Arabs, such were al~Qalis,Qasr Sindad and1
others.
I. Ibn IshacL,op.cit.p.39*
The Arabs were also said to have venerated trees*. The— 1"best known example was Dhat al—anwat. It was described as'
a huge tree, which belonged to the unbelievers of Quraysh and
other Arabs. They were believed to have visited it once every
year, where they hung their weapons om it, sacrificed to it,.,
and stayed there for a>. day. Apart from the deities mentioned1,,
there were also star-worshippers, although they were common
among the southern Arabs*
The Hfmafa*
Among the polytheistic Arabs, there was a group of people,
although not organised together, wfi.tr neither believed in Chris-
tianity nor Judaism, These were the hunafar. They were the• -
people who possessed; the real and true religion^ and were pan-
ticularly known to folTow the religion of Ibrahim*, They wor
shipped Gbd, they did not take idols, creatures or any created
beings to be the media betitfeen God and them, as practised by
the members of their societies*.,
It was told in Bukhbri in his Sahih, that Zaid ibn *Amr♦ * ®
ibn Nufail asked the Christian hermit, "What is a Hanif?"1 the
hermit answered him that it was the religion of Abraham which
was neither Christianity nor Judaism, and there was only one
1. Al—Suhaili, Al-Raud al-unf,vol:2,p.289 .2',, Encyclopaedia of Xslam,vol: 11 ,E-K,subject:hanif,{p *258^,
*”39-
U —Gbd to worships’,r There is a quotation from the. Quzrftan whicHi
runs*, "Ibrahim was not a Jfew, nor yet ai Christian*,, but he was
an upright' man who. had surrendered (to;> Allah), and he was not
of the idolaters.”^ This quotation from al~Qur"an and the above
story of Zaid ibn rAmr ibn Nufail, illustrated clearly the faiththe
of the hunafa*, among whom was/Prophet Muhammad himself, who
spent much of his life, before the revelation, away from hi's;
.polytheistic society, practising the religion of Ibrahim.
The ftunafa1' did not only- recognise the existence of Gbd,*»
with his absolute powers but also believed im the coming of
the new Prophet as well as the resurrection, and had complete
faith that men would be recompensed and punished according toa «c,"*r 13their dbeds. Zuhair ibn Abti SUlma, in his poetry said Si’
Do not conceal from Allah what is in your hearts so that
it may remain hidden, for what are hidden Allah knows-.
It is either held back and stored up, for the ddy of
Judgment, or is brought forward and he punishes •<
The idea of worshipping idols was opposed by the hunafa1*
completely. Some of them avowed openly the invalidity of wor
shipping idols, and called upon their fellow countrymen
1. El-Alusi, op. c it. p. 227 • — —2 Surat al-Imran, 67.
3. AT-Alusi, op • c it • pp
-40-
tcr leave and withdraw^ from it, A number of them consisting
of Zaid ibm *Amr ibn Nufail, Waraqah ibn Naufal, *Uthman ibn
ab-Hdrith, and *Abid ibn JMish insulted the Quraysh by saying,*» *.’
"You are worshipping the idols which bring you no good and noT -harm."^" This contradiction of the hunafa1 roused the anger
• i
of the Arabs. Consequently they were forced to flee the coun
try for their lives.
Among the hunafa* were ibn Si*idah al-Iyadi, Umayyah
ibn Abi al-Salt, Zaid ibn *Amr ibn Nufail, Waraqah ibn Naufal,
Zuhair ibn Abi Sulma, Ka,fb ibn hu*ai ibn Ghalib* and others.
Most of them died before the advent of the Prophet.
One of the most distinguished figures of the hunafa* was
Waraqah. Hh was believed to be a Christian. He was the pei>-
son who told the Prophet*s wife, after the first revelation,
that Muhammad was the Prophet to be. He died soon after that,•i
before Muhammad began preaching his religion. H6- had; promised
to support the Prophet if he lived and saw the spreading of
Islam, The verses of his poetry obviously showed his faith2and belief' in the coming Prophets
(33 believed) that the son of *Abdullah, Ahmad has been sent,
to every one living in this broad land.
1. Al-Slus 1, op. o it. p". 27 3 •2. Ibid, p. 3 02.*
-41“
I think he willl he sent speaking the truth,
as God sent His two messengers, Hud and Salih*• •Then Moses and Ahraham, until he is seen,
In glory with a clear revelation.
If I am spared until his mission is known to the people,
I wdhll he pleased and happy with him^
Otherwise, Khadljah, know that,
I* will leave this land of yours and travel throughout the »wide world*
Another well-Known Hanif was Zaid ihn 'Amr ihn Hufail•
He was the man who fled fi?om his country (Mecca) and travelled
in search of the true religion. He spoke of not worshipping
idols which were worshipped and magnified hy his people. In
his poetry he said:
I renounce al-Lat and al-'Usza hoth of them,
as a strong-minded patient man does,
Heither will 1 worship al-'Uaza and her two daughters,
nor will I visit the two idols of harm.' Ghanm.
I will not visit Huhal, though he was our lord,» \In the days when I had little sense.
He travelled to Syria where he met Jewish and Christian
hermits, who then, told him of the coming of the Prophets Muhammad.
1, Al-IlusijOpiCit.p.220,
-42-
He returned home, but Before he could enter Mecca, he was ambushed
by a group of Meccans and killed. On his death Waraqah said
these versess^<< You were on the right path Ibn ,!Amr,
you have escaped a cauldron of fire.
By believing in one Lord who has no equal,
and abondoning the idols of tyrants as they were,
by attaining the religion that you sought,
and not being forgetful of proclaiming the Unity of your Lords,
And now you are in a noble place of dwelling,
where ibsa you will rejoice your generous treatment. ^
One of the Hunafa' who lived and saw the spreading of Islam,
was Abu Qays Sarraah ibn Abi Anas of banu/Najjar. Hb converted]
his home into a mosque, where he worshipped the One and the Only
God. He emphasised his faith in God by saying, "1 pray to and
worship'the God of A b r a h a m . H b mentioned the word Allah in
a verse of his poetry which he said during the pre—Islamic period2and among the polytheist’s:
tiGlorify Allah at dawn every morning,
When the sun rises and at every creScseriV moon.
He adopted Islam soon after the Prophet's migration to Madina,3and on his arrival he recited this verses
1. Al*-A'lusi,op.cit .p. 227.2. Ibid,p.293*3. Ibid,p.293*
Hb dwelt among the QUraysh in Mecca for ten years and more
hoping to find a suitable friend.
Some modern writers considered the Hunafa*’ iohave been'*<■
the followers of Christianity*, This fact must have been based
probably on the knowledge that most of the hunafa1 were Bible#
readers and they, influenced by their reading had used some of
the words, used in the Bible, in their poetry which were not
known to the Arabs.
The Jews’
Tb trace the origin of the JTewiuh migration to Arabia,
and to Hi jaz in particular, is somewhat difficult, because of
scant sources. But the fact that the Jewish colonists had long-
been settled in Arabia is fully accepted by the hiislorians and
scholars of both western and eastern world.
Al-TsfUhani in his book of songs (al-Aghani) dated the. • •*
settlement of the Jews in Arabia as early as Moseses war against;
the Amalekites (al-,!amaliqah)i The story told is that; Moses-
sent a group of his army to the Hijaz and ordered them to slay
every one of the Amalekites. The army succeeded in their mis
sion, killed the Amalekites and and their king, al-Arqam, except
IV Al-ITsfahani, Al-Aghani,vor:19*P*94*
-414-
for a young son of their king# They returned to Jerusalem with
the young prince to ask for Moses*s opinion, hut they found'
that he was dead. The Jews in Jerusalem threw them out, con
sidering that they had committed a hig sin by disobeying Moses*s
command. With no—where to go, they returned to the land of the
Amalekites and settled there. This group of soldiers was be
lieved to be the first Jewish dwellers in the Hijaz.
The more reliable sources noted the Jewish migration to
Arabia during the invasion of Palestine by the Romans or the
Gbeeks, and more specifically after the destruction of the
temple.'1' Waves of Jewish people fled to the Hijaz*, It is re-lated! that after the destruction of the first temple, 80,0Q.0i
prieste who? survived, migrated to the Hijaz and joined the former•*
2settlers..
In the Hijaz they established their new homes and culti-
vated the land. They constructed strong forts to protect them
selves from the raids of the beduins*, Th a period of time,
there were numbers of Jewish colonies in Khaibar, Fadak, Wadx
al-Qura, Taima", Maqna and inimost villages to the north of
Yathrib. Those colonists were from the tribes of banu Qainuqa*’,
banu an-Hadir, banu CJuraic&ah, Banu Bahdal, banu f'Ikrimah, banu* *Tha'labah, banu Mahmar, banu Zaghurah, banu Zaid, banu *Auf,
♦
and banu Basis3., Besides them were the members of the Arab3
1. Jbwish Encyclopaedia,1905?subjectsArabia,p.42. Al-HufI,al-Mar * ah*fi l-shi*r^. l-*&rabi,p.l9*
2. Encyclopaedia Judaica,1971,vols3,subjectsArabia,p.234.3. Yaqut,Mu* jam al-Buldan,volt7,P •428• 4* Al-I§fahanT,op.cit.p.95«
-45-
tribes who had migrated to the Hijaz from the Yemen and northern
Arabia,
The authentic Jewish tribes or clans were said to be three,
banu Qainuqa', banu an-Nadir and banu Quraid&ah,^ while the other• l- *
tribes were believed to be of Arabs origins, converted to Judaism.
^t was alleged that both banu an-Wadir and banu Quraiesfa-ah were• 0
descended from ICahin ibn Harun ibn ‘Imran, They were thus
called Kahinan. Owing to the greatness of their ancestor, they
regarded themselves as better than the other tribes and that2they had the right to be leaders particularly in religious affairs,
A poet of banu Qurai'ifoah named Ka*b ibn Sa'd said £;-?-* *
«Bbcause of the two priests you settled where you are in
the land,
a great number of you stayed, and those who expelled you.*
are marred. **
When the Aus and the IChazraj came to Yathrib, after the
destruction of the M a ‘rib ham, they found it dominated by the
Jews. They established themselves among the Jewish communities
presumably on land that had not yet been brought to cultivation.
Their condition of life was bad. They lived in poverty and
1. Watt, Muhammad at Madina, p.193*2. Al-IsfahanI,op.cit.p.95*3. Ibid.
with utmost <$ifficulty on the poorer lands while the richer
lands were in the hands of the Jews. It was the Jews who mono»-
polised the economic life in Yathrih. They were industrial
and agricultural people. They were traders and at the .sameT 'time they practised usury„ They traded in dates, grains and
heer which they imported from Syria. Their Arab neighbours,
who were weaker in all aspects of life, had to deal with them
and formed alliances with their tribes.
The situation of the Aus and the Khazraj did not change.
They suffered a hard and difficult life for a long time, when,
after waves of difficulties, the King of Ghassan, namely Abu - 2Jabilah, came on the scene. Through a careful plot, he suc
ceeded in killing hundreds of Jewish men. The success of Abu
Jabilah was expressed beautifully in verses of !TAbid ibn Salim,3a man from Khazraj:
^ Abu Jabilah was the best man who walks and the most loyal
of them to his promise.
Hfe is the most dutiful of them and the most learned man
in the knowledge of good will.
May the days preserved for us when war full of cares
comes upon us.toA great leader whose sword defeats the enemy.
Ii. J&wad All, Tarikh I-*1 Arab qabl 1-1 si am, p..96.2. Al-Isfahani,op*cit.p.96,3. Ibid,p.96.
-47-
The killing of the Jews was lamented by a poetess of banu1QuraitiiRah named Sarah, in her verses of elegysft
ic I would have laid down my own life for a band of men,
who were of no avail at Hurud which the winds are effacing,« •
Marred men of Banu Quraicstah destroyed by the sword andftspears of the IChazraj,
A great misfortune befell us, in which pure water becomes’
bitter for those who suffer it.
^f they had been skilled in their affair, a great army$
would have fought there to protect them.
Numbers of Jews were slain, but the situation in Yathrib did
not change as was expected. So another plot was conducted by - 2Malik ibn 'Ajalan. He succeeded im killing more than-eighty
men of the Jbws. After this second victory, no Jews were brave
enough to go against the Aus and the IChazraj. To protect them
selves every tribe of them formed alliances with ■either the.
Aus or the Khazraj. The Arabs were then, leaders of Yathrib,
but their position was not firm, because of unbroken hostility
among their tribes, which sometimes led them to fight one another,.
After the famous war of the Aus and the Khazraj namely, Fijar
Yathrib,^ they came to anjagreement and elected one of their mem
1, Al-Isfahani,op.c it.p.96* 2, Ibid,p.97*3.* Al-ICharbutli, al-’Arah wa 1-Yahud f i l-*asr 1-Islaml,p.,23#>
'Abdullah ibn Abi SalUl^ as their leader. This settlement also
did not succeed in aiming its objections. The condition conti
nued until the migration of the Prophet Muhammad to Yathrib,• •
who took full responsibility as a leader and reformed the whole
community on the basis of Tblam.
Mere the Jews influenced by the Arabs?'
After centuries of settling among the Arabs, it is no doubt
that the Jews, although not totally predominated by the Arabs,
were influenced on nearly every aspect of their life except
religion. The author of "History of the Jbws"'writes in his
book, "In pre-Islamic northern Arabia, the Jbwish tribes were
arabianazed, both according to language and their mode of life,2differing from the Arabs only in the matter of religion.,"'"
What is really concerned here is to- put forward the influence
of Arabic language on the Jews.
The majority of the Jews in the Hijaz and in Yathrib and«
its environs particularly, used Arabic language to communicate,
not only with the Arabs, but among themselves too. They spoke>
the dialect of their Arab communities, and at the same time
used1 Hebrew words along with their Arabic, But this fact did
not deny that, there were Jews who could speak and write in
1. Al-Kharbutll,op.c it•pv 23.ft -
2. Bubnov, History of the Jews, trans» from Russian,Moshe Spiegel, vols2,p.308.
Hfebrew. Their own language was usually used to understand their1religious hooks and to perform magic.
The influence of Arabic was so great that the Jews; did not
only speak the language, but mastered the literature as well.
The poetic literature of the Jews was believed to be as old as;
the Arabic Literature itself and possessed the same form, metre2as well as the same meaning and imagination. The oldest verses-
- 3were produced by the poetess Shrah who bewailed the slaughter
of many of her people by the Arabs, as previously mentioned.,
Most of the works of the Jewish poets before Islam are preserved
in the classical Arabic poetry.
Among the poets were, Shmaw'al ibn 'Adiya, Aus ibn Danx,,
Rabi' ibn Abi 1-^uqaiq, Sa'ya ibn Gharid (Samaw'al's brother)
and Ka'b ibn 1-Ashraf. The most famous of them was Samaw*al,
whose loyalty was praised by the Arabs and became a provebial
saying, "More loyal than Samaw1 a l ^ He lived in a castle called
al-Ablaq. at Talma', which was built by his grandfather. In one
of his verses he sayss U For me, 'Adiya built a strong walled fort, with a well
T T ^Where^ drew water as x pleased.
1. Jawad *Ali, op.cit.p.34*2. The ^ewish Encyclopaedia.op,cit.p.53*3. Ibid, p. 53*4. Nicholson, Literary History of the Arabs,p.84*5. Al-Isfahanl, op.cit.p.98 *
Another example of s Jewish poetry was the verses recited
hy Aus ihn Dani al-Qurazi, in answerring a Jbwish woman who
had "been converted to Xslam and ashed to "become Muslim as well.11He said:
xShe called me to Xslam on the day X met her, and X said,
"No, but come and be a Jew.
Me follow the Torah of Moses and his religion,
both of us think that his religion is the true message,
And those who lead on the right way, are rightly guided'.,
At the time of the Prophet's migration to Yathrib, the only
difference, that could be noticed, between the Arabs and the Jews
was their religion. The Jbws were believers in God, they were
the ahl al-Kitab. They observed the holy days especially the
'ffishura" and took the Sabbath as their day of rest... Hhile the
Arabs were idol-worshippers. They did not hav.e a hoiy book,
They did not know the Sabbath They were completely different
in many of their beliefs..
The attitudes of the Arabs towards the Jewish religion (Judaism)
The success of the Jbws in controlling the economy of Yathrib>,.
and their ability in deceiving the Arabs, did not mean that
they had the same ability to spread their faith and creed in
X. Al-*Isfahani,op.cit .p.97*
Yathrib partly and in Hijas wholly. Their failure to do so
was due to many reasons!
1. The Jews themselves were not intrested in spreading a,nd
converting other nations to their religion, with the idea that
they were the ‘Chosen Nation of God* and all the other people
did nut have the same quality as they had. This reason put off
the Arabs from^convert&A too Judaism.
2* The teachingsof their religion were too heavy for the pagan
Arabs and against their nature. For example, the Arabs were
born to fight, they fought for life and raided for food, while:
the Jews regarded that as the dirtiest job.) that leads to evil.
The prohibition of eating the camel's flesh by the Jews was
totally against the Arab's taste, who regarded camels as their
main source of livelihood.
3. The Arabs were annoyed at the way the Jews treated them.
They were tired of being deceived by the Jfewsi, whom they regarded1
as foreigners who grabbed the prosperity of their lands. At
the same time the JTews did not show good manners and character ’
that attracts the Arabs* They kept on breaking promises and
betrayed the Arabs continously, beside their bad treatment in
the economics of Yathrib.
All these reasons did not remove the fact that the Arabs
were also influenced by the Jews, although the influence was
not great. To the Arabs, * ews were learned people, they were
people of knowledge, for they were the ahl ql-ICitab. So, as-a
group of people who could neither read nor write, and possessed
little knowledge, the Aus and the Kha&ra$y always followed1 the-
Jews in many of their works. The Jfews also taught them to write
Arabicr ... It is no wonder that when Islam came to Yathriba
there were already^number of Arabs who could read and writer
There were also members of some Arab tribes around Mecca and
Yathrib who had converted to Judaism suchjas the tribes of banut- 1Hhrith ibn Ka'b and banu Kindah'* At the same time there were
\
also intermarriages among the Arabs and the Jews. The Jews1
also spread the idea of Muhammad^s prophecy. And it is believed«•
that this is one of the reasons that helped the spread of Islam_ 2.among the Medin&se. *Asim ibn 'Umar ibn Naqawa related 5.0.
*>
"What made us accepted Islam, with God's mercy and Guidance,
is that, we heard from the Jews1 that, we were poly
theists and idol worshippers, they were the ahl 1-Kitab,, they
possessed knoxrtedge that we did not, and there was still hatred
and enmity between us and them. When we achieved something
that they did not like, they said to us,*’the time of the new
Prophet is near, we will kill you and him together.18 We heard’
a lot of it from them, and when Allah sent Muhammad,, we responded
1. Al-HufT,op.cit,p.29**-
2. Al-Kharbut1i , al-'Alaqat al-siyasiyah baina al-'Arab wa 1-Yahudfi l-»'usur al-qadlmah, p . 65.
to his call, and we knew that they had promised us, we hastened
towards him, we believed in his teachings and they became infidels
Christianity
The spread of Christianity on the Arab Peninsula was rather
different from that of the Jews. If Judaism entered Arabia
through migration of its people to some parts of Arabia, Chris
tianity entered through missionary workd, trading and slaves.
That was due to the status of Christianity itself. It was the
state religion of the Roman Empire and there was no doubt that
the Empire would support every means of activities to spread
the religion, especially among the Arab tribes, who were dwel
ling within the boundries of Arabia, Syria and Iraq.
The exact date of an early Christian penetration into Arabia
is not known, although there are claims by Christian authors,
that the penetration of Christianity into Arabia dated from the1early days of Christianity itself. These claims connot be ac-
— 2cepted, as Dr Jawad *Ali explains in his book, "Because their
proofs are not well established and therefore we cannot put the
exact date of its penetration now. The only way for us is to
search for the oldest written work that we can stick to^,"V: y
without any doubt and any interpretation.1"
1.. Sheikho,TarIkh al-Nasraniyah fi Jaalrat al-'Arab,vol:l,p*28.2, Jawad fAli, al-Mufassal fi Tarlkh al-'Arafo qabaL-Islam,Vol> 6.. j j
pp.506-7
It is obvious that Christianity first entered Arabia in
Busra^as was shown in the old Greek and Syriac traditions,as-1well as those of the Muslims later on* The first tribe of
Badiydt aS -Sharn to accept Christianity was Quda'ah, a tribe
from Yemen, whose chief was appointed king of the area by the2 -Romans* They were succeeded later on by the Salih and Ghassan
*
in succession. The latter became the kings of that part of3Syria until the emergence of Islam.
The acceptance of Christianity by the Ghassanid kings was*
manifest among the Muslim writers. Al-Ya'qubi, in his Tarikh,
writes,*
"Those who embraced Christianity among the Arabs were: from
Quraysh^bamb Asad ibn 'Abd al-Hfeza, from Tamxm, banu Imri el-
Qays, from Rabi*ah banu Taghlib and from Yamen, banu Tayy, Madhhij,• •
Bahra', Salih, Ylaftukh, Ghassan and Lakham." The Ghassanid
belief and religion were also praised by the poet Imru T-Qays
m his verses:.^
^ Their place is with God, their religion is ancienf;r
and they hope for nothing but the results.
They wear fine sandals and excellent sashes,
and on palm Sunday they are greeted with myrtle branches.^
1. Sheikho,op.cit.p.29*2• Al-Ya1qubi,Tarikh,p .29 *3. Sheikho,op.cit.p.29*4- Al-Ya'qubijOp.cit,p.257.5. Sheikfro,op.cit.p.31.
-55-
The Christian! 25 at ion of the Ghassan was followed by other
neighbouring tribes, especially those, who were under the influence
of the Roman Empire, (as shown from the text of al-Yh'qubl),,
At the same time the activities of the missionaries went: on.
with great success; Through their strong personalities, with'
their knowledge of medicine, logic and their way of attracting
people, the missionaries were successful in persuading the tri
bal leaders to accept Christianity, or to give them help in
their objectives. It was not only their knowledge that attrac
ted the Arabs, but also their power and ability to cure the
sick, as well as their summons to God in fulfilling the Arabs-8
wishes, that made Christianity acceptable. At the same time,
the missionaries were courageous people. Some of them went out
to live in, the desert with the nomads in their tents adopting1their ways of life until they were known as priests of the tents,,
It was believed that most of the churches within the bor
ders of Syria were built during the fifth century A.D. Some of
them were named, (as found in Yaqut, Muf jam al-Buidan) dayr Ayyub,
dayr Bawanna, dayr Sa"d and dayr Busra. These churches survived•2until sometime after Islam,
1 , Sheikho,op,cit,p,37»2. Ibid,p.36,
-56-
The Arab traders who travelled throughout the length and
"breadth of the Peninsula* found churches as relaxing places to
rest in. They were supplied with water as well as alcoholic
drinks and entertainment. The Arabs learnt some of the teachings
of Christianity through their occasional visits to these churches,
where they observed and watched the priests performing their
religious obligations and following their religious teachings.,
It was alleged that, some of the priests, would go out in the
middle of the night with their light to show the way to the Arafcb 1traders.. All these activities performed by the churches and
the priests, made a great impact on the lives of the Arabs.
The sources also showed that, Christianity was accepteda
by^number-; of Arabs through their relations with Christian tra
ders, and that Christianity entered Arabia, also through its
imported gooda some of which were slaves of both kinds, white
and black. The white slaves most of them were from Persia and
Byzantium, were more preferable to the Arabs, because of their
beauty and skill, which were not found among those imported
from Africa. These slaves, both white and black, were mostly
Christians, With their knowledge of reading and writing, they
succeeded in turning away some of their masters,from worshipping
idols to the acceptance of their religion, or if not accepting'
X. Jhwad !Ali,op.cit.p.589*
-57-
it, stopping some of them from practising their daily worship
of idols and leaving them wondering which was the right religion
to follow.
The Arabs on the borders of Iraq, accepted Christianity"
as did their brothers on the borders of Syria. It was due to
their relations with the Byzantines as well as the activities
of the missionaries from the Syriac churches. Although the
government of Iraq or Persia was not Christian, the spreading
of Christianity in the area was not opposed, since the Persians
were not keen on spreading their own religion, and Christianity
which spread there was not of the same sect as that followed
by the Byzantinism.*
Some sources give information of the acceptance of Chris
tianity by the Icings of Hira and attributed to them the erection— 1of some of the churches of Hira, as claimed by the church writers.
*
2But this claim is again rejected by Dr Jawad ,'A'li, in his sta
tement that most of the kings of Hira were obviously idol wor
shippers, because Christianity was not imposed upon them as had
happened to the kings of Ghassan, and the spreading of Christianity
within their territory was among ordinary people only, and not
among the kingf,s tribe and family. At the same time Christianity
1. Sheikho,op.cit.p.87-92.2. Jhwad *Ali,op.cit.p.596.
\
was only a strange religion to them and its penetration did
not concern them immediately. It was believed that the kings
of Hira remained idolators until the end of the sixth century,
when king Hu*man became a Christian. He was the first king
of Hira to accept Christianity and supported the cause morally
and materially. One of the churches, which he built, was named
after his wife, Hind who was a Christian.
It seems "that Christianity entered Arabia both by land
and by sea. By land,through Syria and Iraq to the Hijaz and* .Yemen, by means of trade caravans, which connected the Hijaz
and other parts of Arabia} and by sea^through ships from Greece
and Abyssinia to Yemen, wliioh was regarded as one of the impor
tant centres of Christian mission. Ethiopia or Abyssinia was
the centre from which Christianity penetrated to Yemen and later
to Hljaz Bbjran, the famous trading centre of Ybmen was rela- *
ted closely to the spreading of Christianity in the Peninsula.
After the second Ethiopian invasion of Yemen in 525 A.D.,
Christianity spread widely among the Arabs of the south. The
Ethiopian governor^ Abrahah, took Nejran as the centre of the
Christian community by building churches and practising the
teachings of the Bible. One of the famous churches built by
him was al-Qalis, which resembled the Ka’bah in Mecca. His-
aim of constructing al-Qalis in such a way, was to turn the
Arabs away from going to Mecca and persuade them to come to
Nejran as the destination of the Arabs 1 pilgrimage, a a>
result, he formed an army and sent it against Mecca. The ex
pedition failed. Most of the army was killed by disease,
and the rest returned to Be jran. Nejran remained a Christian
city into Muslim times, until its inhabitants were expelled by
•Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Caliph.
It is undoubtedly that Christianity had its own influence
in the Arab society, especially in its language and literature.
The poetry of the pre-Islamic period show impressions of Chris
tianity in many ways and aspects of its life. Arab poets
dealt with ideas of monotheism, the history of prophets,
and added religious expressions to their poetry, which they
heard and learnt from the Christian priests and monks.
Those ideas were outside their knowledge before the coming of
Christianity to them. The use of foreign languages by the chur
ches in their prayers gave the Arabs courage to translate the
Bible and other religious texts from their origins into Arabic,
One of the Bible translators whose work was known to society
was Waraqah ifon Baufal.
The Sabians
There was another group of Arabs known as Sabiane
(al-sabiah). The word Sabiah is mentioned three times itr * "#,Tthe Qur’ant
1. Those who believed (in the Qur’an) and those who follow
-60-
the Jewish (scriptures) and the Christians and the Sabians,
and who "believe in A'llah and the Last Day, and work righteousness
shall have their reward with their Lord, there shall he no fear
on them, nor shall they grieve.*^
2.» Those who believe (in the Qur’an), those who follow the
Jewish (scripture) and the Sabians and the Christians, and who
believe in Allah and the Last Day and work righteousness, on
them shall be no fear, nor shall they be grieved?
3v Those who believe (in the Qur'an) those who follow the Jfewish
(scripture) and the Sabians, Christians, Magians and the poly
theists, Allah will judge between them on the Day of Judgement,3for Allah is witness of all things.
From the three quotations of 4Vi&-*Qur'an, it is identified
that the Sabians mentioned are a group of a religious movement,
who believed in Allah and the Last Day, They differed from the
Jfews and the Christians and they'had no connections with the
Shbians of Harran, who were moon-worshippers, and claimed them-
selves to be the Sabians mentioned i n - Q u r ' a n , during the
Abbasid time, in order to be granted the same religious privi
leges as the. Jtews and the Christians,^ .
1• Shrat al-Baqarah,62•2, Shrat al-Maidah,72.3, Surat al-Hajj,17«
♦
4, Encyclopaedia Britannica,1972,vol:19.p.855• Shlih Ahmad al-'AlI,• • •
Muhadarat fi Tarikh al-'Arab,p,260.• •
Robson, claims that the Sabians mentioned in the Qur’an were most probably the Mandeans, wrongly called the Christians
of St John, They can still be found near the Euphrates and
Tigris. Baptism is a frequent and important rite, so running
water is necessary*'*'
pThe word sabaa as illustrated by the Arabic dictionaries,
means those who put away their own religion and take another
religion as their belief, 'Ihe pre-Islamic Arabs interpreted
the word, as those who put away their ancestors1 belief and
accepted the new religion. They called the Prophet Muhammad and
the Muslims *»■ in early Islam' - Sabi’ah. One tradition related
that, when ’Umar ibn al-IChattab accepted Islam, one of the• •Quraysh, namely Jamxl ibn M a ’mar called to his friends, " 0,
Quraysh, ’Umar f e a* sabx *5*”' * But ’Umar who was behind him said,
"He is a liar, I have become a Muslim and I declare that there
is no god except Allah and Muhammad is His Prophet," In ano-♦
ther tradition Ibn Sa'd related that whenever Muhammad was preaching
Islam, Abu Lahab? follox^ed him. and said,' "Do not follow him, he
is a sabi* and a liar."^
From these traditions, a conclusion can be made that the
Arabs considered the Sabiah as believers in one God (Allah)'
1. J. Robson, Encyclopaedia of Religion,1970,p.544*2. Taj al-’Arus, al-Qamus al-Muhxt, al-Sihah and others.# # * * *3. Ibn Kisham, al-Sxrah al-nabawxyyah,vol:l,p.3T*4* Ibn Sa*d,Tabaqat,volsi,part:l,p,145*
They described the Muslims as such because they could not differentiate between the Muslims, Jews, Christians and
Hunafa*.*
There is another tradition which relates that the Sabiah,*were the Sabians of Harran. They were the ancestors of Abraham*and were divided into two groups:
a. The Sabiah Hunafa1.• #b. The Sabiah Mushrikun.'*'
*
The Mushrikun of them were those who worshipped the seven
stars. Every star had its own temples, where the sabians prayed1
and offered their sacrifices and offerings. The Sabiah Hunafit*• •
were those who had the same belief, but prayed like the Muslims
and faced the Ka'bah. A group of them fasted in Ramadan.
They prohibited eating port, dead animals and blood, and2marrying close relatives just as the Muslims do.
It is diffiicult to draw a conclusion as to what exactly
the sabians believed, because all sources give different accounts
and different ideas of their beliefs. But as far as the Qur’an
is concerned the sabians were believers in one God and the Last
Day, they were neither Jews nor Christians. Whether they had
the same belief as the Hunafa* or not, is also obscure, for
there are no tradition that says, the sa/bians were the Hunafa*.
1. Al-Alusi,op.cit.p.334*2. Al-Mas*udi,al~TanbTh wa l~Ishraf,pp.T9",137*
Religious Customs
Hajj, the pilgrimage to the Sacred House, is one of the
religious obligations . , v performed by the Arabs long
before Islam. This obligation descended from Abratidm, when
Allah revealed to him and ordered him as well as his people
and his descendants to carry out the pilgrimage, after his com
pletion of the building of the ICa'bah. Allah says in al-Qur'an,
"And proclaim, 0 Abraham, unto mankind the pilgrimage. They
will come unto you on foot, on every lean camel. They will
come from every deep ravine. That they may witness things that
are of benefit to them, and mention the name of Allah on app
ointed days, over the beast of cattle that He has bestowed upon
them. Then eat thereof and feed therewith the poor and unfor- Ttunate•
The pilgrimage was performed during some particular months
of the year as mentioned by al-Qur'an, "For the Hajj are the
months well-known, and those who undertake the duty therein,
let there be no obscenity, nor wickedness and nor wrangling in2 - the Hajj."' A. tradition related by at-Tabari . ..• • •
on the authority of Ibn 'Abbas interprets the ashhurun ma'lumat
as the month of Shawwal, Dhu l-Qa'dah and Dhu l~Hijjah,^ which
were included in the holy months of four. Another month was
1. Surat al-Haj j, 27-8.,2. Surat al-Baqarah,197.3. At-Tabari, Tafsir,volsll,pp.l50-3. Ibn Hisham,vol:l,p.45*
• - •
Ibn Manzur,Lisan al-'Arab,vol:6,p.272,vol:15,p.10.
Muharram. It is believed that the exact days for the performance ♦of the pilgrimage was the first ten days of Dhu l-Hijjah*
The pilgrimage to the Sacred House brought together the
Arabs from places all over the Peninsula, leaving behind their
enmity and animosity towards each other. They venerated the
Sacred House and performed all the institutions of the pilgri
mage, such as the circumambulation of the ICa'bah, the running
between Safa and Marwah, and the standing in prayer at 'Arafah
and Mina. At the same time they abandoned things prohibited
during the pilgrimage. All these obligations of the pilgrimage
continued to be performed as they were, until the Quraysh, who
possessed the custody of the ICa'bah, invented the idea of the
Hums and put it into practice. It is believed that this idea1was invented before the year of the Elephant, probably during
the custody of Qusayy ibn ICilab.
The Hums and the Hullah r* ; ' ' " •
Hums means the people of the sanctuary or the sacred place,
more obviously the Quraysh and those people residing in Mecca.
Traditions .■ - ' ■: in considering who were the ahl
al-hums. A tradition on the authority of Ibn Sa'd from al-
Waqi&i and al-Azraq.i relates the hums to be the Quraysh, ICinanah,
1. Ahmad Ibrahim Sharif, Malckah wa l-Madlnah fi 1-Jahiliyah wa 'ahd al-Rasul, p.188.
~65~
IChuza1 ah, Judham, Dhakhrawan, Tahqif, 'Umar, al-Lat, Ghatafan-,
'Adawan and Qudafah, Another tradition says that the tribe of
the Hums were all the clans of Quraysh, Khuza'ah "because of its
neighbourhood to the Quraysh and all those who lived in Mecca#
The Hums are reported to have said, "We are the sons of Ibrahim, the people of the holy territory, the guardians of the
temple and the citigens of Mecca# No other Arabs have rights
like ours or a position like ours. The Arabs recognize none as
they recognize us. So do not attach the same importance to the
outside country as you do to the sanctuary, for if you do so,
the Arabs will despise your taboo and will say, 'They have given
the same importance to the outside land as to the sacred terri
tory."^ Thus they gave up the standing in prayer at 'Arafah
and the swift departure from it, while theyrrecognized that these
were obligations of the pilgrimage and the religion of Ibrahim*.
They considered that other Arabs should stand in prayer there-
and depart swiftly from that place. They said, "We are the people
of the sanctuary, it is not fit: for us to leave the Sacred terri
tory and honour other places as we ■. j -..2honour the sacred place*"' Later they took other tribes and
clans of the Arabs living in Mecca and other places of the Pe-
ninsula, to join them and become members of the Hums. -
I* Ibn Ishaq, op.cit.p.87.2. Al-Alusx,op.cit ,vol:2,p.319*3. Ibn Hisham,op.cit.vol:l,p.200*
-66-
After a period of time, they added other ideas to the Hums.
They were not to eat the salted cheese made from the milk of the
sheep, they could not enter tents of hair, and they were not to
sit in the shade of tents made from the skins of animals during
their pilgrimage. Then they said, *'!Dt is not fit for those
from outside the sanctuary to eat their own food, if they come
to do the Ha j j or 'Umrah. They are not to circumambulate the
Ka'bah except in the clothes of the Hums, or they have to do it
naked. If men and womenjkmong them honour themselves (by perfor
ming the tawaf)- and they do not have the clothes of the Hums,
they are to circumambulate it wearing their own clothes, but
must throw them away after finishing the circumambulation.
Heither they nor others can touch the clothes or use them any
more The Arabs called such clothes laga. A man composed a
verse of poetry im memory of his clothes which he had thrownor-away after the circumambulAtion:;
lcafa hazanan marri f,alaihi kaannahu (Ti • *lagan baina aidi at-taif ina harimu« f «
Sufficient enough is the sorrow thatTpassed him, as though ke 3 .•was a laga m front of the circumambulators.
The rules of the hums were followed by most of the Arabs.
They halted in prayer at 'Arafah and departed sitfiftly from it,
and undressed themselves when doing the circumambulation. Their
1. Ibn Hisham,op.cit.vol;l,p.202.2. Al-Shartuni,Aqrab al-mawarid,volsl,p.l85. In ibn Hisham the verse! .
was related skafa hazanan karra 'alaiha kaannaha.*3. i an u<r\VocA£-Vv<a'fc>\e. c\oiVve.s ,
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women did so, wearing only an open shift that showed most of1the "body* A woman said a verse on this occasions
al-yanma yabdu ba’duhu au lculluhu
wama bada minhu fala uhilluhu*&Today part5 of it or all of it could he seen,. Bht what is seen
of it I do not deem lawful.
The Bullah were undoubtedly all the other tribes of the 0Arabs who were not included in the hums. They forbade themselves
hunting during the pilgrimage. The rich of them spent his wealth
for the sake of the pilgrimage and the poor collected what they*
coiild from their animals, butter, wool, skin and fur that would
last them for the pilgrimage. They did not enter any door nor
any house. They did not shelter themselves as long as they were in
the clothes of ihram. They ate meat and when they entered ^ecca *after giving ax-jay all their shors and clothes, and shared the
clothes of the hums as sign of veneration to the K a fbah and if *
2they could not get any, they would circumambulate it naked.
The most manifested difference between the hums and the
hullah were the standing in prayer at *Arafah at the beginning #of the ^ajj, where the hullah performed it and the hums did not,
• • «
because *Arafah was outside the haram, and the clothes of ihram.
1. Al-XLusT,op.cit.vol :2,p.321.2. Ibn Habib, al«*Muhabbar,p . 180).• •* The reference here is to her sexual organs.
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Ann as a 1 ah
Annasa*ah was usually refered to those Arabs who proclaimed
the holy months of Rajah, Dhu l-Qa'dah, Dhu 1-Hijjah and Muharram,* •
were to he delayed and declared other months as the holy months1for the year, instead of the original four months* The declara-
Ition of the delayed holy months was usually hoioed after the pil
grimage* A man would stand and say to the people before they
departed from Mecca, "Allahumma inni ahlaltu ahada assafaraini• • • ♦
«• 2 wa nasa'tu 1-akhara lil ,am-,l~muqfbil." The first man to announce
annasa*ah was al-Qalammas Hudhaifah ibn *Abd ibn Fuqaim ibn ’Ad&y#
ibn *Amir ibn Tah*labah ibn 1-Harith ibn Malik ibn Kinanah ibn 3Khuzaimah* The announcer of annasa*ah went down from al-Qalamrnas
to his descendants and the last of them was Abu Thumamah, Jhnadaho
ibn *Auf. A poet from Ban! Firas ibn Ghanm ibn Malik ibn Kin an ah,
namely *Umair ibn Qays said proudly:^
alasna *n-nasi'ina^ ?ala ma*addin 6
shuhurw. 1-hilli naj’aluha harama # #Are we not the people who dictated to Ma*ad to delay the appointed
months. Me make ordinary monthsholy*« 5According to Ibn Isk aq. the nasa*ah was practised for two reasons:¥
1* To delay the month of Muharram to S'afar for the purpose of• •raiding, fighting and taking revenge.
1* Ibn Hisham,op*cit*vol:l,p*45*2. Ibn Khaldun, Tarikh ibn Khaldun,vols2,p.685*3* Ibn Kathir, al-Bidayah wa an~Hihayah,vols2,pp.206-7* 4* Ibid.5* Ibn Hisham,op.cit*vol:l,p*46.
—69—
2. To delay the time of pilgrimage,
Al-Hadaya (sacrifices made to god)
The mushrikun were understood to have saorif i oed their be
longings to the gods and idols that they worshipped, Allah - 1says in al«-Qur*an:
”And they made for Allah a share of what Allah has produced in
abundance in tilth and in cattle, and they said according to
their fancies, this is for Allah end this is for our partners,”
The sacrifices and the hadaya were of different types and kinds,
all according to the economic situation of the tribe, 3h Mecca
for example, where most people were traders and merchants, the
hadaya were usually in the form of either money, jewelleries or
clothes. "4 was related that there was some kind of a well in
the Ka*bah where hadaya was thrown in it.
This did not stop other tribes from offering other things
to their idols. Thus wheat and other agricultural products
were offered to Dhu l~Khalasah, because the people of that2 * ™ area were mostly agriculturists. Another type of hadaya was
animals where sheep, camels, poultry and other domestic animals
were offered. Allah reveals in al-^u^'&n types of hadaya in
I-Iis verses:
"Mia ja'ala Allahu min bahiratin wala saibatin wala wasilatin
1. Surat al—An fam,136.
2. Ibn l-Kalbi,op.cit.p.35*
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wala hamin, walakinndulladhinak&fanu yaftaruna 'ala Allahi 1-— — 1IcacLhiba wa aktharuhum la ya'q.ilun,'1 Quranic interprators dif—
<L£S\t<l6fered awah^thenyin defining the words bahirah. saibah, wasllah.and hami. What is understood from most traditions aSJes
1# Bahirah was a she-camel that had given birth to five cubs,• 7
if the fifth was male, it would be slaughtered, and if it was
a female, one of its ears would be cut off and its milk would
not be drunk, except for guests and it would not be used for
riding*
2*, Shibah was a camel which was left by its owner and nobody
would take any benefit out of it.
3« Wasilah was the twin cubs which were a male and a female. '!fhe female would be sacrificed to the idols while the male would be left unitouiiViG *
4* Hami was the she-camel that had delivered ten females con-
secutively,, - ' It would be left about and would not be used for anything.
Al-Kuhhan (soothsayers)
Kahin is the name of the soothsayer among the polytheistic
Arabs. They were believed to have been under the influence of
gods. Their knowledge was based on inspiration. They had alsoth<t
visions by night which reveal to thenyfuture and other events
1. Surat al—M a 1idah,103*
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and things hidden from ordinary beings. If is related thatevery kahin had a tabi* or companion who waiSc; usually shaitanr T 1 _ ^
1or Jinn- They played a very important part in their society.
They were always consulted by chiefs of tribes before making
any important decisions, especially before going to x-jar. They
also acted as judges where people came to them to Ijudge.dc’and 2 -justified. The Kahin*s . . . ,,u utterances we^ausually said m the
form of a sad.i*. short sentences in rythmic prose, with single, or3more rarely alternating rhyme. Among famous soothsayers of
both sexes were Shiq. ibn Anmar ibn Nizar, Satih ibn Mazin, Fatimah• ' #
bint Murr al-Khath1amiyah, who was said to have offered herself
to the Prophet Muhammad^s father,^ Zarqa* bint Zuhair and others,*
The intellectual life
The pre-Tslamic Arabs were mostly illiterate. Only a small
number of them were able to read or write. Those itfho had the
opportunity of reading or writing x-jere usually traders who oame
from the towns, such as Mecca, Madina and Taif and who themselves
had covered the width and length of the Peninsula and had con
tacted the people of the neighbouring states, Yemen and Ethiopia
in the south and Syria and Persia in the North, In Mecca?as well
1. Ibn Habib, op.cit,p,390.2, Al-Mas^dijMuruj al~Dhahab,vol:l,pp. 168-75*3. Encyclopaedia of Xslam,vol:l,p,625.4, Ibn Sa1d,vols1,pp.96-7*
as other parts of Arabia, there were groups of intellectual people
who were called hukkam* They were the judges*,. People came
to them to justify their cases of heritage, conflicts, lands1 —and water and others* The hukkamfs judgement was based on
their experience, - W . W trustworhiness, personality and
their intellegenoe. Among the Hukkam were al~Af*a ibn al-Af’a al*-
Jurhumi, Hanzalah ibn Nahd al-Qada’i, Aktham ibn Saifi ibn Rabah * • • • •ibn l~Harith ibn 1-Mukhashin, *Amr ibn Humamah al-Dausi and * *among the Quraysh were *Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim, Harb ibn
• # •
Umayyah, * Abdullah ibn Jad'an and al-Walxd ibn al-Mughirah al-
Makhzumi•
Other types of intellectual charactiistic and experiances
of the Arabs weres
1* Al-Shi*r (poetry)
The most notable feature of ah intellectual life of the
pre~Islamic Arabs was their poetry* It was regarded as their
treasure where all their ancestors’ history, their wars, their
pride, their bravery, their generosity, their law, their hatred
of their enemies and their love tof their women and children 2were recorded. The birth of a poet in a tribe was
usually celebrated by the tribe and congratulations poured in
11.* Al-Ya1 qubi,op.cit.vol :l,p*258.
2* Ibid,p.262.
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from neighbouring tribes. If a poet emerged in a tribe, he- - 1would be taken to the suq or aswag where he would recite his
poetry in front of other tribes. His talent and fluency in
reciting his verses would be judged by established poets. Such
judges were appointed to give judgement on 'Whe~*wai3 the most ta
lented poetj on that particular meeting. One of them was ImrCi
til-Qays, who judged the shu^ara* in suq. 1 ? a.. l*fc 1 fcs
related that a stage was built for him for that purpose*
2. Al-Ansab (genealogy)
The Arabs were very keen on preserving their genealogy.
It was the important point of their pride. They needed it in
their war where a genealogist of a tribe would mention the names
of their ancestors. It was believed that everjr tribe had its
own geneologist who could remember all the names of the tribes,
their clans, their families, their pride and their disgrace,
their wars and skirmishes. One of the famous genealogists of
the Arabs was Abu Bakr ibn Abi Quhafah, the Prophet*s companion
who was itfell known for his knowledge in genealogy before and
after Islam.
3. At-Tib (medicine)• *
The medical experiencer of the Arabs was mostly inherited
by them from their ancestors or imported from the neighbouring
1. Aswag is the plural of suq, which means market. The aswaq al-Vkrab were usually held once a year where they met and traded their goods as well as said their poetry. One of the most famous of them was suq.
Sasanian or Bysantine Empires. The medicine used by -them was1herbs and other agricultural products. One of their famous
_ . - - 2atlbbh*’ was al—Harrbh ibn ICaldah al-Thaqaf i. 6\£-t-c>y-A\v\<s\* * i ^V v - e i v s S A f e ' Y V \ e _ W e s y V x e u - V ^ v - i V A ' t e - ^ g c j T c-t .
4* An-Nujum (astronomy)Being traders who had to guide their caravans through endless
desert, and being nomads who had to move from one place to another
for pasture and water, the Arabs had acquired a wide knowledge
of an-nu.jum.. They knew the names of stars, their rising and
setting times. That was all acquired through their own obser
vation of the stars, which were used to guide them to their des- 3tination.
There were of course other fields of knowledge and intel
lectual experiances which the Arabs possessed, such were their
knowledge of wteqther, shipping and navigation, al-akhbar, al-
filhiah and Al^q.iyafaH.
1• Al-AlusI,op.c it.pels 3 j p .3 27•2. Ibid,p.329.3. Ibid,p.344*
Ibid,pp.210— 364. 1 av\J|art ^ ^ ^L- \ <r L^XW\^P -V-<£\VN C-Ae>\\ -‘SlvA ke.Y\CJl .
*75*-*
GHAPTER 2:
To: ’brace the conflict between the Prophet Muhammad and the
Quraysh, one has to look "back at the situation of Mecca before
Islam, the of the Prophet himself. How did he
spend his boyhood, his youth and his married life, before his
mission, within the polytheistic society of Mecca. How was his
relationship with the Quraysh, and why did they oppose him and
his message from Allah to the extent that he had to flee from
Mecca.
Mecca
As most communities of pre-Islamic Arabia, Mecca never sur~— 1rendered to be governed by a single man or liqah. The system
of one man rule was rejected by the Meccans and it was against
their nature. Mecca was governed by a body of men who were
called mala*. They were the represent it ives of the tribes and
clans who were dwelling around and inside Mecca itself. They
met, discussed, planned their society and solved their problems
in a house called dar al-Nadwah. This house was believed to
have been built by Qusay ibn Kilab of Quraysh, who was appoin-«ted as the first leader of the mala1, after Khuzalah. The
senate or mala1 ruled Mecca, and governed the people according
1. liqah is a system, where a man was declared to be a ruler or king of a society or a country.
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to customs and hereditary law. The tribes were not bound to
accept or follow every decision taken by the senate. The Quraysh
always paid a certain amount of their wealth to Qusay which
was later used to provide food and drink for the pilgrims who
visited Mecca every year4to perform their pilgrimage.
After Qusay's death, the leadership of Mecca fell to his
eldest son 'Abd al-Dar, until he was challanged by 'Abd Manaf.
Mecca was then divided into two camps or parties. Bach camp
was supported by some tribes of Mecca. The quarrel'.1 nearly
led to fighting, but a compromise was achieved, by which each
was given certain functions in governing Mecca.
'Abd Manaf was to supervise the siqayah (water-supply,
especially during the pilgrimage) and rifadah (provisionig of
pilgrims), while 'Abd al-Dar was given the functions of hi.iabah
(veiling the Ka'bah) and liwa'’ ( carrying the standard in war
or arranging them) and nadwah.
'Abd Manaf was more celebrated than 'Abd al-Dar, and it
was his sons and grandsons who later controlled the politics
of Mecca up to the emergence of Islam. But among the sons of
'Abd Manaf, the party was divided again into the house of H&shim,
and that of 'Abd Shams, which was known as the house of Umayyah.,
This division into Hashim and Umayyah created the greatest problem
in the history of the Arabs when 'Alx and Mu'awiyah fought each
■77-
other for the rank of the
One of the leaders of Mecca, who established his persona
lity before the advent of Islam was ''Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim.• •He was the Prophet's grandfather who was one of the mala1 and
held the post of sipayah. The most important work he did which
brought out his personality, was the re~excavatio$f of the well
of Zamzam, which had become blocked up during the last days of’
the Jurhums. The excavation of Zamzara helped him greatly and
made the duty of supplying water for the pilgrims easier for
h k !. It was in his days that Mecca was attacked by the Ethiopian
troops, commanded1 by a man called Abrahah. The attack on Mecca
had a purpose. With the strength of his troops, Abrahah hoped
to demolish the K a ’bah and turn the Arabs’ veneration of the
ICa’bah away towards the new ka'bah which he built in Yemen*.
’Abd al-Muttalib tried to drive the Ethopian troops away by2negotiation, but he failed, as he failed to strengthen his
3men to fight against the Ethiopians, for the enemy wsSe fully'
equipped with arms and weapons.as well as elephants, against/which the Arabs had neither the experience nor the ability to*
fight.
'Abd al-Muttalib directed his men and the population of • *
Mecca to take cover within the surrounding valleys and hills
1. Ibn Hisham,volsl,pp.20f-10.2. Ibid,vol:l,pv51.3*. Al~Ya"qubi, op.cit,vol:l,pp.209-210.
-78-
of Mecca while he himself, as is alleged, did not leave the
Ka’bah hut remained he side:: ill, praying to Allah to protect the
sanctuary and preparing to fight and stop the invaders with
some of the men who were loyal and faithful to him,.
By the will of Allah the Ethiopians were stopped from acini'tevif.rng;; their purpose. A flock of hirds was sent down on them
carrying pestilence and death to their troops. This incident
raised 'Ahd al-Muttalib’s popularity morally and religiously • •
- - 1to the extent that he was called hy his people the second Ibrahim.
This particular incident is mentioned in al-Qur’an,as Allah says
in surat al-Fil (the Elephent)s
"Bo you not see how your Lord dealt with the companions of
the elephant? Bid he not make their treacherous plan go astray?
And send against them flights of hird, striking them with stones
of ba&ed clay. Then he made them like an empty field of stalk
and straw (of which the corn1) has been eaten up."5
Among the mala' of Mecca, whose personality emerged after
fAbd al-Muttalib and continued to flourish after Islam^was • •
Abu ^Sufyan ibn Harb ibn Umayyah. He was known to be a success
ful merchantov;He was able to conduct fcrade caravans to the north
and south and to rn Arabia.^ It wa he, with his cleverness
1. Al-Ya~qubi,op.cit.vol:l,p.7*2 • Al-Alus I ,op.cit.vol'sl,p.320.
-79-
and expertness, that saved the Quraysh trade caravan from the
Muslims, thus leading to the battle of Badr,
The fact that the Umayyads held the post of the liwa' ,
although the post was not given until sometime before the emer
gence of Islam, gave Abu Sufyan the chance and responsibility
of strengthening the military pox^er of the Quraysh. It was his
courage and devotion to the old beliefs which inspired the po
lytheist Meccans' struggle against the emerging power of Islam
in Madina.
The political situation in Mecca was not altered, until
the Prophet conquered the town and abolished most of the Meccan
traditional systems except the post of siq.ayah and hijabah.
Meccan Trade
As a centre of trade route between north and south, Mecca
had automatically relations with the surrounding communities
and those of southern and northern Arabia. The trade link bet
ween Mecca and the southern part of Arabia or Yemen in particu
lar dated as far back as the Himyarite dynasty, who in their
profession as traders, had established small settlements along 1the trade route to the north. At that time Mecca was only a
1. J W a d 'All, QjMSmt.volsi,pp.381-384•
stopping station for the trade caravans with its Ka'bah which
received its venerat'ion of the traders,especially the King Tubba*
who was said to be the first man to veil the Ka'bah and
ask the people to venerate it/'*'
During the Qurayshitae- rule, ®eooa sent one of its men, itfho'
was said to be al-Muttalib ibn 'Abd Manaf and ratified an ag-• •
reement with the Yamanites? according to which the Quraysh were
allowed to trade in Yemen and its territory. This trade agree
ment brought the two communities to work together and appreciate
each others' success. Sources mention that 'Abd al-Muttalib• *
ibn Hashim established a friendly relationship and exchanged
delegations between Mecca and Yemen, as the one sent by 'Abd
al-Muttalib to congratulate Saif ibn Dhi Yazan on his success • •
2over the Ethiopians, who had invaded Mecca before that.
The Meccan trade was of different types and kinds,. Some
of them traded in rice and wheat and some were traders of beers,3oil, weapons, swords, bows and arrows. Hbt only men were tra
ders and merchants, but also women. The most known personality
was Khadijah bint IChuwailid, the Prophet's wife.
1 . Ibn Hisham,op.cit.volsl,pp.19—20.2. Ibn al-Kathir, op.cit.vol:2,pp.171-2.3. Ibn Qutaibah, al-Ma'arif,p.249*
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MUHAMMAP BEFORE ISLAM
His 'boyhood.
HieHe was ‘born in one of the noble families of^Quraysh, whose
ancestors had the greatest influence in the political, economic
and social life of Mecca. Qusay ibn Kilab, one of his great,• -
1great grandfathers, seized power from the IChuza'ah and it was
he who instituted the nadwah. hi.iabah, siq.ayah, rifadah and liwaT,~ • « r r " - r — — ■
as mentioned earlier* His grandfather 'Abd al-Muttalib ibn• •
Hashim gained his prosperity through his effort in excavating
the well of Zamzam as well as his courage in facing the expedi
tion of the elephant from Ethiopia.
*Abdullah, who was Muhammad*s father, was the youngest son
of 'Abd al-Muttalib. The significance of his life, was that,
he was 'Abd al-Muttalib*!s son who was to be sacrificed to God • «
in order to fulfill his father's promise that he would sacrifice
one of his sons, if he was given ten, but 'Abdullah's life was
exchanged for one hundred camels after the matter was put to„ * 2one of the kahinat of the Arabs.
It was after this incident that he married ^uhammad's mother*• -
Atninah bint Wahb ibn 'Abd Manaf ibn ZUhrah, whose father was
1> Ibn Hisham,op.cit.volsl,p.59* 2• At-Tabari,op•cit•vol*2,p •174•* m
YV\6 +the chief of Banu Zuhrah* She was herself, one of ihe^ re spec-
table ladies of the Quraysh at the.*; time.
There was an argument among the Arabs scholars relating
to the time of 'Abdullah'b death. Some stated that his death
was before Muhammad1s birth. This tradition was opposed by most• i 2 wave. a.of the scholars, for there^others who gave^different version
on the subject, Abu Ja'far at-Tabari in his Tarikh relates that• *
Hisham ibn Muhammad said that, Abdullah died eighteen months3after Muhammad's birth, Hisham*s tradition was supported by
• •
another tradition, which Says that 'Abdullah died twenty two
months after Muhammad was born.^
After his father's death, Muhammad was left with his mother
and later, sent to the tribe of Ban! Sa'd, a becj'uin tribe of the
desert, to be brought up among them, with the purpose that when
he grew up he would speak the perfect language of the Arabs,,
This is confirmed by the Prophet himself when he said as rela-fted by Ibn Sa'd, "I am frorn^Quraysh, and my tomjye is the tongue
of Banu Sa'd ibn Baler,
old. He
His mother passed away when he was about six years
was left with his grandfather, 'Abd al-Muttalib, who.
I'. At -Tabari, op, c i t , p , 1'7 4 •• '» •
2. Al-Mas'udT,op.cit.vols 2,p.58*3, At-Tabari,op.cit,p,130*
• •4* Ibn Sa*'d,op.cit,vol:l,p,62.5'. Ibid, p. 71..6. At-Tabari,op.cit*,p.131,.
-83-
died two years aftier his mother*s death, as related by some
sources. But there is another tradition which relates that1*Abd al-Muttalib died when Muhammad was ten years of age.
• • •
He was then left in the guardianship of his uncle, Abu Talib>
who himself was not a rich me.n and had to support a big family.
At the age of twelve he accompanied his uncle on a trade cara-2' - van to Syria. It was on this journey that Bahira, a Christian
hermit at the church of Busra, saw him and recognised that he
would be the future Prophet, after inspecting and questioning
him. Bahira told Abu Talib that his nephew*s life was in dan- • •
ger, if the Jews found out about him and asked Abu Talib to take■
3him back to Mecca as soon as possible.
His marriage
At the age of twenty five, Muhammad married Khadijah
bint IChuwailid, who was forty years of age.^ She was as rela-- 5*.ted by Ibn Ishaq, a rich, wealthy and respected lady of Mecca.
It was said by al-2uhri that most men of the Quraysh were eager
to marry her.^' It was in Khadijah*s merchandise that Muhammad•»
traded to Syria and it was his honesty and integrity in his-
1. At-Tabari,op.cit.p.131.# *2• Al-Ya*qubi,op.c it.vol: 2, p . 10.3. .-cit .p ..195 •4. Ibid,p.196.5* Ibid.6). Ibid,p. 197* Ibn Sa*d,op.cit.p. 131.
-84-
_ ijob that attracted Khadijah to marry him. Ihn Ishaq, tells that,
when Maisarah told Khadijah of Muhammad's honesty, during his
trading trip to Syria, Khadijah sent for Muhammad and said to
him, "0 , son of my uncle, I like you for your relationship, your
good position among your people, your honest^/, your good man
ners and your truthful talk.1" She then offered herself to_ * ■Muhammad. Nhfisah hint Munaih relates the- story of Muhammad s • *-
— 2marriage to Khadijah as follows, "Khadijah sent me to Muhammad•>
after his return from Syria. I said to him, *0, Muhammad, what• »
prevents you from marrying?* He said, *Xf you are offered beau
ty, wealth, nohility and fitness, would you accept?1" "Hfe said,
"Who is she? 1 X. said, 'Khadijah.* He said, 'How am I going to
do that?' X" said, "It is up to me.' Hfe said, *'I will do so.*
I went hack to Khadijah and told her the story.. I' sent for
Muhammad to come at a certain time and sent for Khadijah's uncle,• •»
"Amr ihn Asad, to marry her. Muhammad came and entered to his
uncles and one of them married him to Khadijah." Khadijah was*■ — —the mother of all of Muhammad s children except Ibrahim, whose
mother was Mariyah al-Qibtiyah,
His place among the Quraysh
Although Muhammad had neither wealth, norany power what so- *•
everin his Meccan society, yet his character as an honest,
1 . At-Tabari,op.cit .p. 197*.• •2. Ibn Sa"d,op.cit.p.131•
-85-
integrated, just, trustworthy young man, ranked him highly amongXhis people. He was known to them as al-Amin (the trustworthy).
The rebuilding of the Ka’bah hy the Quraysh which aroused
anger among the tribes that took part in the activity, could
have led to a disasterous war, had it not been for Muhammad,
who was asked to settle the problem. The story related by Ibn 2Ishaq, tells that when the Quraysh came to the final stage of »
putting back the Black Stone in its place, the argument arose
by, to which tribe would have the honour of doing so. Anger
flared up so that every tribe swore that they would go to war
against any of them who dared to take the fionour of putting the
Black Stone back. The situation of anxiety continued for four
or five nights. Then the tribes met in- the mosque consulting
each other and trying to solve the burning problem, when finally,
Abu Umayyah ibn al-Mughirah, as alleged by some narrators, the
eldest man of the Quraysh at the time, said, ’’Take the first
man to enter the mosque to be the judge of your argument."
It so happened that the first man to enter was Muhammad, and*
when the Quraysh saw him, they said, "This is Muhammad, the3trustworthy, and we are satisfied with him."K When the problem
was explained to him, he went to the corner of the Ifa,rbah where
1., At-Tabari,op.cit.p.201.2. Ibid.3. Ibid.
the Black Stone was to he put, and asked the Quraysh to "bring him a piece of cloth. The cloth was brought. He lifted the
Black Stone and put it in the cloth. Then he asked all the chiefs
of the tribes concerned to hold a corner of the cloth and lifted
it to the place where it was to be put. lie took the Black Stone
and placed it himself.
Muhammad's capacity for solving the problem, with his quick *
and clear judgement saved the Quraysh from further bloodshed
which would cause death and destruction of their own people-.
This incident; gives a clear picture of the Quraysh*s attitude
towards Muhammad as a respected responsible young man.
The revelation
Scholars are agreed that, before his revelation from Allah,
Muhammad used to spend his time in prayer in the cave of Hi'ra*'.
The motive of his isolation has been described differently bya\~
scholars. A tradition related by al~Zuhri from 'Urwah ibn^Zubair
and from 'Aishah who sayssnThe first revelation from Allah to
Muhammad was just a true dream (al-ru'ya al-sadiqah) and it*came like first rays of the dawn (falaqi al-subh:"). After that
• •
he was always liked isolation. He isolated himself in prayer
in the cave of Hira* for severed nights, before returning to
his family. Then he returned to his family for the same supply-
of food, till Gabriel came to him.1'
1. At-Tabari,op.cit.p.205*
Another tradition, which, was related by Ibn Ishaq, from Wahb
ibn ICisan from 'Abdullah ibn al-Zubair from 'Abxd ibn 'Umar says,
"It was the custom for the Messenger of God to spend one month
in prayer at Hira every year and that was the custom of the Quraysh • -
during the Jahiliyah. Tahannuth is tabarrur. The messenger• " .
of God spent the particular month of the year, eating what was
given to him by the poor. When he completed his month's stay
there, the first thing he did after leaving Hlraft and before• »
entering his house, was to circumambulate the Ka'bah sevem. times'.
or more (only God knows how often) and then returned to his home.
HO did like that until the month of the year when Allah the Al-1mighty wished to honour him wajth the Brophethood.*
What is understood from the two traditions is thats Muhammad
had no liking for isolation until he had a revelation which came
like the dawn. While the second tradition mentions that isola
tion in prayer was the existom of the Quraysh in the Jahiliyah
and therefW&e Muhammad was not the only person to have done
that, but there were others too who might have done the same..
Muhammad's first revelation was in Ramadan as Allah says,• *
"Ramadan is the month in which the Qur'an was sent down as a
1. At-Tabari,op.cit.p.206. Ibn Hisham,op.cit.volsl,p.251.• +
-88-
1guide to mankind and also a clear evidence of guidance and proof,,,r
Traditions differ from one another in mentioning the age
of the Prophet at his first revelation. Most traditions in
At-Tabari say that Muhammad was forty when he received the re- 2 -velation. Ihn Hisham agrees with that when he related frorm
Ihn Ishaq, saying, "When Muhammad reached the age of forty, Allah • •3sent him with mercy to all people"^ Other traditions which are
also related in At“Tabari give an account that the Prophet re-
ceived his first revelation when he was forty three years of
age as the one related hy Ihn Humaid from Sa'id ihn al-Musayyib
who said, "The revelation was sent down to the Messenger of God
when he was forty three years of age."^
The Qur'an does not mention the exact age of the Prophet
at the time of his first revelation, although it does mention
that he had a life-time before the revelation# Allah says in
verse 16 of Surat Yhnus, "Say, if Allah had wished so, I should
not have recitedl it to you, nor would I- have made it known to
you. I have stayed among you the life-time before this, will
you not then understand,"' The conclusion which can he drawn
from all the evidence is that, the first revelation was sent
down to the Prophet during his early forties. It is worth men
tioning that the Arabs regard the age of forty as the age of maturity.
1 . Surat al-Baqarah,185-2. At-Tabari,op.cit.p.202.
• *
3. Ibn Hisham,op.cit.p.249*4. At-TabarT,op.cit.p.202.
-89-
The first verses of al-Qur'an revealed to the Messenger
of God, as agreed by all scholars were,.
"Iqra* bismi rabbika alladhi khalaq, khalaqa 1-insana min
'alaq, iqra1' wa rabbuka 1-akramu 1-ladhi 'allama bi 1—qalam,
'allama 1-insana ma lam ya'lam."'
There are slight differences in the traditions relating
the event of the first revelation, Ibn Ishaq, relates that the
first verses of ttaA»Qur*an were revealed to the Prophet while he 1was sleeping. The Prophet said, "Gabriel came to me with a
receptacle of pure silk in which was a ICitab and said, 'Read, *
1 said, 'I do not read.' He pressed me hard until I thought
it was death, then he released me and said, ’Read,* I said,
*1 do not read,1 He pressed me hard again, until I thought it
was death, then he released me and said, 'Read,' I said, 'What
shall I read?' X did not say that except to prevent him from
returning to me and doing the same thing as he had done before.
Then he said, 'Read in the name of your Lord who created, who
created man out of a, mere clot of congealed blood. Read, and
your Lord is most bountiful. He, who taught the use of the pen.
He who taught man what he does not knoitf.' And then I read.
He finished the reading and went away, X woke up and felt as
if the kitab were written in my heart."
1. At-Tabari, op.cit,vol:2,p.206, $ ♦ *
Ibn Hisham,volsl,p.253.
-90-
'I&rwah who related the tradition from *Aishah hint Ahu
Bakr, mentions that the Prophet was fully awake at the first
revelation of -ftte.~Q,ur'an* According to him the revelation of
ihft-Qur’an came after the first rays of the dawn, as heen men- 1tioned earlier.
After the revelation the Prophet went home to Khadijah,
frightened and terrified, and told her what he had just seen
and heard. Khadijah said to him, "Be happy and he hrave, I
swear hy Him who holds Khadijah*s soul in His hand that you
will he the future Prophet of this Ummah." She went with the
Prophet to Waraqah ihn Haufal, a cousin of hers, who was one
of the Hunafa* and read the Bible and translated it into -Arabic.
When Muhammad related the story to Waraqah, he told him that
the same Gahriel who had come to him xvas the one who came to
Musa ihn 'Imran, and that he would he the future Prophet of
his people, who would persecute and drive him out of* Mecca*.
Waraq.ah said that, were he to live to that day, he would give2full support to Muhammad. Waraq.ah died soon after that.
The revelation stopped for a period of time which worried
the Prophet severely, so that he tried to throw himself several
1. AtAlTahari, op.cit .p.205* Al-Huwairi, 'Nihayat al-Arah fi irunun• •
al-Adah,vol:16,p ,17 3•- w2. Ahu Hu* aim al-Isfahani, Hal ail al -Wuhuwrah, p . 17 0 .
times from the top of •i9£>M» :Hira,, hut each time he was stopped• ■
by Gabriel, who appeared in front of him and said, "0, Muhammad,
you are the Messenger of God."
Jabir ibn 'Abdullah al-Ansari relates from the Prophet,
at the time when revelation stopped, saying, "When I was walk
ing one day, I saw the angel, who came to me at Hira', sitting
on a chair between the sky and the earth. I was terrified at
seeing him and went homeand said, 'Cover me, cover me.' X was
covered and then Allah revealed, '0, you, who are wrapped in /a mantle. Arise and- deliver your warning and your Lord, magnify
And your garments, keep clean. And all abomination keep
away from."2
Xt was after the revelation of these verses that the Pro
phet started to preach his message. Allah asked him to talk
about what He gave him, to his people and about his prophethood
and to preach what he was taught to those,.whom, he believed,
could help him in his mission, as Allah says, "Wajamma bini'mati
rabbika fa haddith." And the bounty of your Lord
proclaim.^
The first obligation imposed on the Prophet and his follo
wers, after proclaiming the oneness of God and renouncing
1. At-Tabari,op.cit,p.210.• •
2. Surat al-Mudaththir,l-5* 3• Surat al-Duha,11.
-92™
the idols, was prayer* Ihn Ishaq, relates that when the Prophet
was in a valley outside Mecca, Gabriel came to him and taught
him to perform wudu* and pray. He went home and taught Khadijah_
the same.^
The Earliest Converts
The first person to accept Muhammad's message, as claimed™ 2 by all traditions, was his wife Khadijah bint Khuwailid, who
bravely supported him and stood couragously behind him i rith all
her influence and personality as well as her wealth until her3death three years before his migration to Madinah.
There is an argument among scholars on the subject of who
accepted Islam after Khadijah. Some traditions mention, 'Ali
ibn Abl Talib to be the first convert as related by Zaid ibn9
al-Arqam who said, "The first man to accept Muhammad's teaching
was 'All ibn Abi T a l i b . A t the same time 'Ali himself was heard
to say, "I am the servant of God and the brother of His Prophet,
and his staunch friend, anyone who ever says this after me is
a liar. I prayed with the Messenger of God for seven years
before the others. 'Ali was also believed to have said the
1 . At-Tabari,op.cit.p.210 • *2. Ibid,p.307.3. Ibid,p.343«4* Ibid,p.310.5. Ibid,p.310.
-93-
following verse,
sabaqtulcumuila 1-Islami turran (
ghulaman ma balaghtu awana hulrrfi• •
I came to Islam "before all of you, as a "boy who had not reached
the age of puberty.1
He was between nine and ten years old when he became a Muslim,
Other traditions claim Abu Bakr ibn Abi Quhafah to be the_ 2first Muslim after Khadijah, A. tradition on the authority of1
al-Sha*bi said, **!3j said to IbnfAbbas, *'Who is the first Muslim?*’3Hfe said, *Did you not hear the verses of Hhssan ibn Thabit,
Idha tadhakkarta shajwan min akhi thiqatin C ~)
fkdhkur akhaka Aba Bhkrin bima fa ,!ala
When you think of the sorrow for a trustworthy man, think of
your brother Abu Bakr for what he did.
Khairu 1-bariyati atqaha wa *'a*'dalaha , ___baPda an-nabi^ wajaufaha bima hamala
The noblest of mankind, the most God-fearing and the most equit
able, after the Prophet^and the most faithful with what he carried,
qitfe-thani al-tali^al-mahmud€t mashhaduhu
wa aviwalet n~nasi minhum saddaqa al-rasula
The second, the follower who deserves praise within society,
and the first, among all the people to believe in the Messengers
of God.
1. Abu 1-Fida*, al-Mukhtasar fi Ak-hbar al-Bashar,p.ll6.-2. At-Tabari, op. c it ,p, 31<&.
• •3. Al-Muwairi,op.cit„p.180„
Besides the traditions which claim ’Ali and Ahu Bakr to>
he the first Muslims, there are also traditions that mention2aid ihn Baritha-Vu1 to he the first convert after Khadijah.
«»
He was a slave whom the Prophet freed and adopted. He named
Zaid after himself. It was one of the Quraysh*: tratidions to
give their adopted sons their own names and tribal names. So,
Zaid was known to the Quraysh as Zaid ibn Muhammad.
It is rather difficult to give a definite word on who ac
cepted Islam first among the three. The possibility of anyone
of them being the first convert, as mentioned by the traditions,
is obvious. Both 'Ali and Zaid were members of the Prophet's
household, while Abu Bakr a prominent member of his
tribe9was said, to be the Prophet's friend before Islam and
to know his personality well, and he w^s always known to be
an honest and trustworthy man.
The early converts
According to Ibn Ishaq, Abu Bakr, after his conversion to
Islam succeeded in bringing some of his friends to the new re
ligion. These were, 'Uthman ibn 'Affan ('Abd Shams), Zubair
ibn al-’Awwam (A’sad), 'Abd al-Rahman ibn 'Auf (Zuhrah), Sa'd
ibn Abi Waqqas ('Abd Manaf) and Talhah ibn 'Ubaidillah (Taym).2
They were later followed by other people who were listed by
1. At-Tabari,op.cit.p.314.e «2. Ibn Hlsham9op.cit.volsl,p.267.
-95-
1Ibn Ishaq as follows:Abu 'Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah (al-^arith ibn Fihr1}, Abu Salmah
• •
(Makhzum), al-Arqam ibn Abi al-Arqam (Makhzum), 'Uthman ibn
Madh'dn (Jumah), his brothers Qudamah and ’’Abdullah and his son
Saib ibn 'Uthman, 'Ubaidah ibn al— Harith (al-Muttalib), Sa'd ibn* o *
Zaid ibn 'Amr ibn Nufail('Adi) and his wife Fatimah bint al-IChattab'e * *:
(the sister of *Umar ibn al-Khattab), Asma* bint Abi Bakr and
'Aishah bint Abi Bakr (Abu Bakr'!s daughters), IChabbab ibn al-Arrat
and 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, the confederates of Banu Zuhrah, 'Umair
ibn Abi Waqqas (the brother of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas), Mas'ud ibn • •al-Qari (al-Qarah), Salit and Hatib ibn 'Amr ('Amir), 'Ayyash ibn
• *
Hudhaifah (Sahm), 'Amir ibn Rabi'ah (the confederates of al-IChattab) . • •'Abdullah and Ahmad ibn Jhhsh (the confederates of Bani Umayyah),
• •
J'a'far ibn Abi Talib and his wife Asma* bint 'Umair (Khath'am),
Hatib ibn al-Harith (JUmah), and his wife Fatimah bint al-Mujallah,• • • • *
Hattab ibn al-Harith (Jumah), and his wife Fakihah bint Yassar,* t » * •
Ma'mar ibn al-Harith (Jumah), al-Muttalib ibn Azhar (Zuhrah),* * • •
and his wife Ramlah bint Abi 'Auf (Sahm), Nu'aim ibn. 'Abdullah
(the brother of Bani *Adfy), 'Amir ibn Fuhairah (the mawla^f Abu
Bhkr), IChalid ibn Sa'id ( 'Abd Shams) and his wife Aminah bint.
Khalaf (iChuza'ah), Hatib ibn 'Amr, Mahsham ibn 'Utbah ('Abd Shams),• •
Waqid ibn 'Abdullah (the confederate of Bani *Adjy), IChalid,
'Aqil, 'Amir and lyah from Bani al-Bukair (the confederates of
1. Ibn Hisham,op.cit.vols1,pp.268-280.
-9&-
bani ,;Animar ibn Yasir (the confederate of bani Makhzum)
and Suhaib ihn Sinan (the confederate of Bani Taym)«,
From those names given by Xhn Ishaq., it seems that most
of the early converts were among the Quraysh of different tribes,
who seemed to come to the Prophet in groups, as those of 'Uthman
ibn 'Affan and his friends, and individually as well as in couples,
like Sa'xd ibn Zaid and his wife. The list also shows that most
of the women who embraced Islam did so when their husbands had
done so* There were only a few cases where the whole family
accepted Islam at the same time and this did not happen until
at the end of the Meccan period as related by Muhammad ibn 'Umar,
namely that those who migrated to Madina, taking their wives ,
their children and leaving their houses locked were the family
of Ghanm ibn Ban! Daudan, the family of Abu Bukair and the family
of Has'!un.?'
A statement on the authority of al-Zuhri says, “The Mess
enger of God (God bless and preserve him) summoned to Islam
secretly and openly, and there responded to God whom He wished
of the youngmen (ahdath al-rijal) and weak people (du'afa1 al-• *
nas) so that those who believed in him were numerous and the2unbelieving Quraysh did not critisize what he said.1' The phrase
1* Ibn Sa*d,op.cit.pp.6 3 , Ibn Hi sham, op. c i t . vo 1:2, pp. 116- 117.
2* Ibn Sa'd, op.cit.vols1,p.199*
ahdath al-rijal does not give the implication that those who an-
swered Muhammad's summons to the Oneness of God, were only young
men of Quraysh, who had neither status nor good position in the
social, economic and political life of the Meccan community.
Though the sources do not state clearly the status of the early
Muslims in their tribes, yet it seems that a number of them came
from the middle class families ofj Quraysh, as Abu Bakr, Sa'd ibn
Abi Waqqas and Talhah, who were either traders or artisans.• •
Khalid ibn Sa'id ibn al-*As was from a family whose father was
considered one of the richest men in Mecca and one of the most
prominent of^Quraysh with considerable power in society. Al-Arqamc
must probably have been in the same position as Khalid, though
young^and must have had certain power in the family, so that he
could offer his house as the headquarters for the Muslims.
The list of the early Muslims shows also that some of the early
converts were confederates of the Meccan tribes as well as slaves
and mawali. These are the people, possibly, considered by al-
Zuhri as du'afa'al-nas. Al—Waqidi gives a different view on thisv ~~ ..subject fabenajieaideht ifies ..thbrmustad'afun as those people who did♦not belong to any of the Meccan tribes, and who did not have any
defence or strength to face the Meccans, who later on, tortured
1. Al’-Muhabbar,op.cit .p. 165*
-98-
3them 'bo "bring them "back to their former religion. ' Among the
mustad'afUn were Suhaib ihn Sinan, *Amir ihn Fuhairah and Bilalr-rrmummmmamu i. r n -
- 2ihn Ribah, who was believed to he the earliest convert from the
Ethiopian mawali, as mentioned in the tradition of Isma'il ihn
Ibrahim ihn Yunus and from Hassan who said, "The Prophet said,
Bilal is the earliest Ethiopian to accept Islam."
Besides Ihn IshaqSlist of the early converts there are also
some sources that mention names of the early Muslims who were not
fromy(Quraysh and i-jere believed to have accepted Islam as early as
'Uthman ihn 'Affan and his friends. These were Ahu Dharr,Junduh
ihn Janadah al-Ghifari, 'Amr ihn 'Abasah ihn 'Amir ihn IChalid
ihn Ghadirah ihn 'Ttab ihn Imri^ol—Qays ihn Bahthah ihn Sulaiman3who was also known as Ahu Uujaih or Ahu Shu'aib, and 'Atabah ihn
Cfhazwan.^ 'Amr ihn 'Abasah c.ldimed to he the third or fourth per
son to accept Islam as stated in the tradition on the authority- - 5of Muhammad ihn 'Umar al-Waqidi. Another tradition related by
«
Shaddad ihn 'Abdullah gives a full conversation of Ahu Umamah
and 'Amr, when Ahu Umamah asked, him, "How do you claim, that you
are the fourth convert to Islam? 'Amr said, 'I was during the
Jahiliyah , seeing the people in error, and 1 did not see the'
1. Ihn Sa'd,vols3?p.230,2. Ibid,pp.227,230.3. Al-Nuwairi,op.cit.vols16.p.192.4. Ibid,p.195*5. Ihn Sa'd,op.cit.volsl,p.215«
,99-
idols of any value. Then 1 heard from a man telling the news of
Mecca and speaking of many things that happened there* I rode
my horse until I reached Mecca. And there I found the Messenger
of God preaching secretly and his people were divided into two,
I showed my friendship so that I entered to him and asked, 'What is the Prophet of God? He said, 'The Messenger of God.* X said,
'Dads Allah send you?' He said, 'Yes.' I said, 'With what? 1 HP
said, 'To "believe in the unity of God, not to associate anything
with him, to break the idols and to keep the ties of relationship.'
And X said, 'Who are with you in this?' He said, 'Freemen and
slaves' Thus Abu Bakr and Bilal were with him. I said to him,
'I am your follower.' He said, 'Y&u are not able to do this on’
this day, but return to your people and when you hear that I have
become known, join me.,' I returned to my people and the Prophet- 1migrated to Madina, and X was a Muslim.
The preaching of Islam went on secretly among the Quraysh and
some other tribes of the Arabs who came to visit Mecca and made
personal contact with the Prophet. This secrecy went on for three 2years.~ Though the mission was still a secret to the public, the
response to Islam was encouraging. Men and Women accepted Islam
1. Ibn Sa'd,op.cit.vol:4jP*2l6.2. Xbn al-Athlr,op.cit.vol*2,p.42.^ Xbn Sa'd,op.cit.volsl,p.l99*
-100-
individually and in groups, Islam spread in Mecca and many people1talked about it in secret.
Then came the command from Allah, "Fa asda* bima tufmar wa— 2•a1rid *ani 1-mushrikih." The verse is commented on differently
«
by Quranic commentators. The word sada*a or more specifically'#. 1 |n "i3sada'a bi 1-haqq. is defined by lexicographers as to speak openly
• *
(takallama bihi jahran). At-Tabari in his Tafsir explains the# •
verse as follows?
Inform your people that I have sent to you and refrain from going
to battle with Mushrilcin and killing them"^ This was before the
revelation of the verse (fa aqtulu 1-mushrikina haithu wajadtumu-
hum),^ which abrogated the first verse that forbids the Muslims
from killing the mushrikinj Ibn Kathir explains that Allah ordered
his Prophet to proclaim his prophethood, carry out his mission6and face the mushrikm.
Al-Qurtubx gives a rather similar commentary to that of at-Ta- • * *
baris Inform all your people of the message of Allah, for Allah7has ordered you to do so.
1. Ibn Hisham,volsl,p.280.2. Surat al-Hijr,94*3. Lisan al-*Arab,vols8,p.l96. ?.Taj al-,Arus,vols5>p.410.?
Aqrab al-Mawarid,volsi,p.638.4. At-Tabari,Tafsir,vol:14,P*69«
• •
5. Surat al-Taubah,5•6. Ibn Kathir,Tafsir,vol:2,p.559*7 • Al-QurtubT, Taf sir, vol s IG ,‘p . 61.
-101-
In Taf sir al-Had.it h, the commentator defines the word isda' as
obey and carry out (atif wa naffidh). The verse ordered the9
Prophet to proceed with his summons to Islam, proclaim it and
carry out the mission which was entrusted to him without pay-1ing any attention to the mushrikin. Other commentaries related
by several narrators, on the authority of Mujahid, give a few
differences on the subjects
a. I.ihar bi l-Qur'an* proclaim the Qur'an.
Al-.jahru bi 1-Qur'an fi al-salah, reading the Qur'an 2aloud in prayer.
All commemtarie{^although slightly different in view^came
to a final word that the Peophet was ordered by Allah to publish
his mission among his relatives in the first place, then to jail- - 3the people, Allah said, "Wa andhir 'ashirataka al~aqrabin.
And admonish your nearest kinsmen. Al-Qurtubi says that the
'ashirataka al-aqrabini were the Quraysh, while other commenta
ries say that they were banu 'Abd Manaf.^
It was after the revelation of the verse 94 (surat al-Hi jr),(ftas agreed by scholars, that the Prophet started to preach his
message fhom Allah openly. Hfe was not opposed by his fellow
Qurayshites and his word was not commented on by them*^
1. Muhammad 'Tzsat Darwazah,Tafsir l-HhdTth,vols4,P*142.ft2• At-Tabari,Taf sir,vols14,pp.67-80.
• • ft’
3 • Surat al-Shu ' ara*, 214*'4. Al-Qurtubi,op.cit.volsl3,p.l43.5. Ibn Sa'd,op.cit,vol:l,p.l99* ->•At-Tabari,op.cit,vol:2,p.324*j
J 9 •Ibn al-Athir,op.c it.vols 2, p. 42.
What they did was to point at Muhammad whenever he passed them
and say mockingly, "'Abd al-Muttalib's hoy is speaking from the• •
sky." This situation of non-confrontation between Muhammad<h
and the Quraysh continued for sometime, until the revelation
of the verses insulting their idols and mentioning the perdi-2tion of their ancestors who had died in polytheism. All
sources are agreed that the revelation of the insulting verses
was the turning point of the Quraysh's opposition to Muhammad
and Islam.
1* Ibn Sa'd,op.cit.p.l99»2., Ibid,p.199*= n Aji-Tabari,op.cit.vols2,p.324# , Al-Nuwairi:,vol: / *l6.p.l96‘'. '
CHAPTER 3
■ Comparative Study of Shirk and Islam
The Quraysh as well as other people who associate Allah
with other elements or beings are described in tVte-Qurran as;
mushrik. To know the exact meaning of the word, one has to
study the word literally and understand its meaning through x
texts of -Qur * an and its interpretation by mufassirun.
The literal meaning of the word shirk which is derived from
the word sharika and as it is defined by the Arabic dictionaries,,
is to share or to participate. When one shares something with
somebody, he is thus,his associate, or in Arabic sharik. Those
words shirk, sharik and other derivations from the same root,
frequently repeated in ttfcvQurf’an, and nearly two-thirds of them
are in verses revealed during the Meccan period. Most verses
containing the word sharika (the verbal forms of it) and so on,
reflect the meaning of the word as those who associate Allah
with other elements of worship, be they human-beings, angels,
jinns, trees, planets or other living and non-living things.
The QUr*'an in defining the word shirk, puts forward severai
types of it which were largely adopted by the Arabs before the
advent of Islam. The types of shirk illustrated by tte-Qur1 an
were not only adopted by the Arabs, but are still practised large
ly by some nations of our times.
In surat al-An'am Allah examplifies one of the forms of
shirk where jinns were taken as Allah's associates. Allah says,
"And they make the jinns equal with Allah, though Allah did
create the jinns and they falsely, having no knowledge?attribute
to Him sons and daughters. Praise and glory be to Him above1what they attribute to Him.,lr
It is in the same verse that the Arabs invented the descen
dants of Allah. Thus they called their three celebrated idols
daughters of God as mention in surat al-Hajm, "Have you seen
al-Lat and al-'Uzza and Manat the third goddess? What, for you
the male and for Him the female?"^" In another corresponding
verse Allah says, "A'nd they assign daughters to Allah. Glory3be to Him, and for themselves what they desire."^
A group of them worshipped numbers of gods. Allah asked
L : through His Prophet^ "Or have they taken for
worship (other) gods besides Him? Say, bring your convincing
proof. This is the message of those with me and the message
of those before me. But most of them know not the truth and
so turn away."^
1, Stirat al-An'am, 100.2. Surat al-Najm,19-21.3• Surat al—Nahl,57 •4. Surat al-Anbiya"1,24*
Some of -them took two gods, Gtn this occasion Allah says,
"Allah said, do not take (for worship) two gods, for He is onlyTone God and fear Me and Me alone
There wbre also some, who accepted the oneness of God, but
did not believe in the resurrection, and in disbelieving that
they denied the might and majesty of Allah, This group is re
ferred to in Ufe^Qur'an as Allah says, "They sx-rear their strong
est oaths, by Allah, that Allah will not raise up those who die,
but it is a promise (binding) on Him in truth, but most among2mankind realise it not,Mf"
To those who worshipped angels,Allah says these words,
"One day He will gather them all together and say to the angels,3was it you that these men used to worship?"
Most of the Arabs associated with Allah idols which they vnaie
with their own hands. On this occasion Allah says, "Do they
indeed ascribe to Him as partners things that can create nothing
but are themselves created?' Mbr can they give them aid, nor4!can they aid themselves,"
- M - 53The author of Tafsir al- anar, divides shirk into three
1, Surat al~Wahl,51* Ibid,38.* •
Surat Saba1’, 40*4*. Stirat al-'A^'raf,191-2.5"1. Al-Sheikh Rashid Rida, Taf sir al-Manar, vol: 7, PP • 409-10 •
categories. The first and the lowest of them all is the igno
rant people who worships creatures and believes them to he gods'
with the supreme power that could bring good and disaster uponmthem. he second is the people who believes that God dissolves
Himself into some of His creatures. ' ' ‘ ..
They then take those creatures as their gods, worship1
them and ask for their help in their sorrow and need. The third
category is the people who believes in God and His supremacy,
but worship other elements as media between God and them. This
is the notorious type of shirk which was practised mostly by
the Arabs of the peninsula besides other types of shirk des
cribed above.
Tft&~Qur*an puts shirk as the number one sin, and that is
why in: one of the Quranic verses Allah says, "Say, come, I will
rehearse what Allah has prohibited you from, join not anything
as equal with Him, be good to your parents, kill not your chil
dren on a plea of want. We provide sustenance for you and for
them, come not nigh to shameful deedSyWhether open or secret:,,
take not life which Allah has made sacred except by way of jus-1tice and law, thus he commands you that you may learn wisdom."
In this verse Allah commands his Prophet to tell his followers
the prohibitions that should be kept away from and puts shirk
in the first place. This reflects the danger of it and the
1• Surat al-An*am,151•
damage that it can do to the people* In the Prophet's tradition,
which was related "by 'Arar ibn Shurahbil from 'Abdullah,ft*
"A man said to the Prophet, which is the greatest' sin with Allah?
He said, 'To call a partner along with Allah. He created you.*
and then what? 'To kill your child fearing that he will eat
with you.' And then what? 'To commit adultery with your nei
ghbour's wife*5" God reveals to His Prophet confirming what he
has said, "Ahd those who do nol£ call other gods along with
Allah, do not kill the souls that Allah forbids them, unless:
with the right claim, and they do not commit adultery, and those1who do that will meet with sins."
TK&-'Qur'an's attitude in dealing with shirk and the mushri-
kun is expressed firmly in many of its verses, Allah says in
surat al-Nisa*, verse 48, "Allah forgives anything else to whom
he pleases. To set up partners with Allah, is to devise a sin
most heinous indeed*,"' In another verse the Qur'an indicates,
Being true in faith to Gotland never assingning partners with
him, if anyone assigns partners to God, he is as if he had fal
len from heaven and been snatched by birds or the wind had swo-
oped and thrown him into a far distant place.
As for the mushrikun, tbA-Qur'an reminds them that they will
1.. Sahih Musiim(Mashkttl)vol*l,p.63.• • •
2. Surat al— .ajj,31.
-T08-
be'prohibited from entering paradise (al™jannah), the verse
says,. "Whoever joins, other gods with Allah, Allah will forbid
him the garden, and the fire will he his abode. For the wrong™Xdoers, there will be no one to help." In another verse^Allah
says, "Soon shall we cast terror into the hearts of the unbelie
vers, for that they joined companions with Allah, for which he
had sent no authority, their abode will be the fire and evil
is the home the wrong~doers."^
The study of shirk provides us with a clear proof that
it is a grievous sin in Islam. What is Islam then? The simp™
lest answer th<atpne can provide is, it is the religion preached’ tVje.
by^Prophet ^uhammad fourteen centuries ago and it is still a
flourishing religion of our era. The followers of Tslam are3
called Muslims or Muhammadans (the followers of Muhammad) as
they used to be called by the western scholars who tried to deny
the originality of Islam as one of the religions of God,besides-
Judaism and Christianity. The word ^slam (an infinitive form
of aslama) means submission, resignation or surrender. The mean™
ing of the word;as illustrated by Ibn Manzur in his Lisan al-
*Arab and explained from the point of view of Islamic Juris
prudence, is to manifest obedience to God and perform all the
1'. Surat al-Ma'idah,72*2. SUrat al-"'Imran, 151.3. f0;v>+ ^ -wu ‘u,
No V?V-e \v\ fc> ■
obligations brought down through the Prophet Muhammad. At-Tabari* * #interpreted the word Islam as submission with humiliation and
1 — solemnity, and his interpretation of the verse, inna al-dina
1ind al-Allahi l-Islam, is to surrender oneself to God with
full obedience and without arrogance and deviation, at the same
time not to assocaite any creatures or elements with Him.
A!-Shahrastan! defined the word Islam as to show obedience
and resignation to God which can be shared by both monotheists
and polytheists. "The desert Arabs say, *We believe.* Say,
you have no faith but you only say we have submitted our will 2to Allah." Thus a true muslim must have faith in Allah besides
his submission to his supremacy. Here is where the iman and
ihsan come in. The Prophets explained the differences between• ' 1 rthese three words in his tradition where the angel? Gabriel,
in the form of a desert Arab, came and asked the Prophet, "0,,
Messenger of God, what is Islam? The Prophet said, *To proc
laim that here is no God but Allah and that 1 am the messenger
of Allah, to pray, to give aim®, to fast in Ramadan and to go>
on the pilgrimage to Mecca, whoever is able to do so.*' The man
said, *You have said the truth,* and then he said, ,!What is
iman? The Prophet said, *To> believe in Allah, His angels, H&S'
1’. At—T&ba$f^ Taf sir, op.cit • vol3 6, pp .275-6 •• *
2 •k Surat al -Hu j urat' ,1>4.
books, His Messengers and the Day of Judgment, and to believe
in predestination."' The man said, *You have said the truth.*
And then he said, *What is ihsan?* The Prophet said, *To wor—
ship Allah as if you see Him, if you do not see Him, He sees
you.* The man said, *You have said the truth,* and then he said,
•When is the Resurrection?* The Prophet said, *The one who is*
responsible for it knows more about it than the one who asked.*
The man stood up and went away. The Prophet said, *That was-1Gabriel, who has come to teach you your religion."
Prom the above tradition we can understand clearly the fun
damental belief of Islam, that is to believe in one God (Allah)
the creator, the almighty. *Tn this uncompromising monotheism,"
says Hitti, "with its simple, enthusiastic faith in the supreme
rule of the transcendent being, lies the chief strength of Islam.
In a statement made by Ja*fa,r ibn Abi Talib in front of«
the Ethiopian King, during the first migration to Ethiopia, when
he and his Muslim brothers were summoned to the Negus*s court
to defend themselves from the Quraysh, who had come to Ethiopia
with the intention of persecuting them, one can understand
clearly the fundamental beliefs of Islam and its teachings..
When the Negus asked the Muslims what was the religion for which3they had forsaken their people, Ja*far answered him, "0, king,
1. A1-Shahra stanl,al-Mi1al wa an-Nihal, volil^p.40.2. Hitti,History of the Arabs,p.129.3. Ibn Ishaq, op.cit.p.152.
we wereja.n uncivilised people, worshipping idols, eating corpses, committing abominations, breaking natural ties, treating guests
badly and our strong devoured our weak. Thus we were, until
God sent us an apostle whose lineage, truth, trustworthiness,
and clemency we know. He summoned us to acknowledge God*s
unity and to worship him and to renounce the stones and images
which we and our fathers formerly worshipped. He commanded
us to speak the truth, be faithful to our engagements, mindful
of the ties of kinship and kindly hospitality, and to refrain
from crime and bloodshed* He forbade us to commit abomination
and to speak lies and to devour the property of orphans, to
vilify chaste women. He commanded us to worship God alone and
not to associate anything with Him, and he gave us orders about
prayer, almsgiving and fasting.. Me confessed his truth and
believed in him, and we followed him in what he had brought
from God and we worshipped God alone without associating aught
with Him a"'
JTaffarls remarks manifest a picture of the two different
ways of life led by the Arabs before and after Islam. One was
full of hatred, enmity, evil and immorality, while the other
was full of truth, love, purity and belief in the supremacy
of Allah, the Almighty. The above text also revealed the stra
tegy and the objective of Islam which can be classified as
followsI-
I1. To correct the "beliefs of the people which had been
distorted by evil elements and to bring them back to the right
path, that is, to believe in one God, resurrection and predes
tination, as the essential step to rightousness.
2. To explain the reality and the authenticity of the
prophets, their messages and their responsibilities.
To show that Islam is the religion of freedom, thought,
knowledge, philosophy and wisdom.
4* To reform the social, economic and political sittiation
of society, by providing the key points to solve and settle the
problems in^-the light of tVic* .Qur * an and Sunnah.
5* To bring the people together as brothers and sisters
under the banner of Allah and to wipe out all signs of discri
mination among them.
<r. To give women their human, religious, social and legal
rights and to respect them as full members of society.
TViA-Qur * an summarised all these objectives of Islam in only
one word, Allah says, wama arsalnaka ilia rahmatan lil ‘alamin.iTTT".r -¥i-L>iMtn«iii.».mii, ,..i M r:ji_ri ii i im n .......................* r .« m r . . i m . r» ■■ >■ n — - t .
We sent you not but as a mercy to all the people. The word
rahmah includes all the objectives of Islam and the message of1 ' 1the Prophet Muhammad.
In verses of his poetry, an Arab poet recited the goals
-113-
of Islam saying?'*' ^ "")_ ydhaka nabi^un sayyidu 1—anami
gad jaa ba*d al-kufri bi 1-islami
akramahu r-Rahmanm rnin imami *
warnin rasulin sadigi 1-kalami
ya'rauru bi s-salati wa^siyamip • i •
wa 1-birri wasssilati wa 1-arhami •* * *
wa yaKjjuru n-nasa *ani 1-uathami
wa r-rijsi wa 1-awfchani wa 1—harami*That is the Prophet who is the head of all creatures? who' bro
ught Islam after the kufr.
Who was honoured by al-Rahman as Imam? and a Prophet who spoke'
the truth.
He orders us to pray and fast? to be dutiful to God and to keep
ties'of relationship.
He orders the people to keep away from sins? and fron unclean-
linessjidols and what he has prohibited.
1. 11-WuwairT? op•oit.volsl6?p.l63.al-Hamid? Shi*r al-da'wah al-Islamiyah?p.30.
The Conflict
It is indeed very important to study the motives of the
Quraysh*s movement against Muhammad, which produced a conflict
that lasted for nearly ten years. The revelation of the insul- 1ting verses was regarded as one of the main reasons for their
opposition* But, of course, there were other important aspects
of life which motivated them to he antagonastic to Muhammad,
his followers and Islam.
The elements of motivation can he classified as folloitfss
a. The religious motive, or more specifically the spiritual
motive. Islam brought a new belief which contrasted with the
belief of the Quraysh in particular and the Arabs in general.
b. The social motive. To the Quraysh, the emergence of Islam
would destroy their social codes of life, which they had in
herited from their fore-fathers*
c. The political motive. Islam would change the political
system of the Arabs*
d. The economic motive, Islam, if not opposed, would usurp
the economic position of the Quraysh.
The Prophet's early message
The fundamental message that Muhammad brought to his peopl
was to believe in One God, Allah the Almighty and that, he,.
1. The verses concerning the subject will be mentioned later in the chapter.
Muhammad was the messenger of Allah* lie was also asked to tell
his people of the kind of life that would exist after their
death, the resurrection and the hereafter*
Therefore, it could he concluded that the Quraysh*s oppo
sition to Muhammad at his early message was based on the
se points:
1. The belief in One God, Allah.
2. Muhammad as the Prophet of Allah.*3. The resurrection and the hereafter.
I1., The belief in One God. Allah.
Muhammad*s message to his people asking them to believe
in one God is described inthA-Qur'an, as Allah says:
"Say, I am only a human being like you, it is revealed to me1that God is only one."r
2"They have been commanded to worship the One God alone."-tyi - )
"I am Allah,^no God except me^and worship me."
"And Allah is my Lord and your Lord, worship Him, this is theAJright path."
5;"That is Allah, my Lord, worship Him, this is the right path."K
"Say that Allah is the Only One."
1. Stirat Pussilat,6.,• *
2. "' al-Taubah,21.3. "! Taha,14*
• 9
4. " Maryam,36.5. al-' Imran, 51.6. " al-Ikhlas,1 .
In his message Muhammad said, "Allah has ordered me to tell
my nearest kinsmen, and I cannot give you either good in this-
world or a share in the hereafter except when you say there
is no God hut A l l a h . T h e Prophet also said, ”1 am the mes~
senger of Allah, sent to all the people and I call you to Allah,2to worship Allah and not to associate anything with Him.l,f“
Xn his call to Abu Bakr the Prophet said, "I call you Abu Bakr-
to Allah, The only One without any associate. Do not worship
other than Him and ^ remind you to ohey Him.'"^
This essential belief of Islam contrasted with the belief
and faith of the Quraysh, who, as explained in the earlier
chapter, believed in God, but took other elements and idols
as media between God and themselves and thus associated the
might of Allah with others.
2, Muhammad the Prophet of Allah
Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah, a messenger from Allah • «
sent to all the people as Allah says inthlt-Qur'an, "wama ar~
salnaka ilia rahmatan li 1-Talamin.11 The fact that Muhammad
was the Prophet and the Messenger of God was not accepted by
most of the Quraysh, especially those prominent personalitiesJYIand figures of ecoa, such as Abu Jahl, Umayyah ibn Khalaf,
1. Al—Nuwairi,op.cit.voltl6,p.l97 *2. At-Tabari,op.cit.p.233.
• •
3. Al-ICind Hilawi,Hayat as-sahabah,vol:l,p.46.
-117”
al-Walid ibn al-Mughirah and others.1 Though there were some
of them who had the knowledge that there would he a prophet a-
mong themselves, such as Umayyah ibn A M al—Salt al—Thaqaf1,
who was hoping that he himself would he the j>rophet. The
Quraysh1s rejection of MUhammad!s prophethood was hased mainly
on the fact that:
a,. Muhammad was not a itfealthy man. He was not one of the mala1.
He did not own a trade caravan. His involvement and success
in trade was not with his own merchandise, he was employed to
trade to Syria. As far as the sources are concerned it was only
twice that he went to Basra on a trading trip, first, with his:
uncle, Ahu Talib, when he was only a hoy. Secondly when he was «
employed hy Khadijah before their marriage.
The Quraysh would not recognise any kind of leadership,
he it religious or secular, from a man who was 'not wealthy, for
being wealthy and rich was one of the main factors in becoming
a leader in the pre-Islamic society. Al-Walid ibn al-Mughxrah
said, "Is it revealed to Muhammad while I am left out. I am*
the greatest of the Quraysh and their lord! and Ahu Mas'ud
Aus ibn fUmair al-Thaqafi is left out, he is the chief of the_ 2Thaqif. Me are the great men of the two towns.1'
1. Their names and status in the Meocan society will he dealt with later in the chapter.
2. Ibn Hisham,op.cit.vol;l,p.337.
b. Muhammad was "born after his father*e death. His mother died when he was about six years of age. Orphans, in the pre-
Islamic society were positioned very low. They were oppressed,
subjugated, despised and treated unjustly. Muqatil related that
Umayyah ibn Khalaf treated Qudamah ibn Maz*un, who was an orphan
under his guardianship, unjustly and deprived him of his own 1rights. Allah gives a version of the orphans* position in
the pre-Islamic society and says, "No, but they do not respect 2the orphans," The verse indicates that those Quraysh who were
given position and wealth refused to give a helping hand to the
orphans and to treat them kindly, Allah says in -feKe Qur * an des
cribing Muhammad al-yatim, "alam yajidka yatiman fa 1 awa
c. Muhammad was a shepherd. Being a shepherd was not conside
red respectable occupation by the Quraysh, whose lives were3mostly involved in trade. It is related on the authority of
Abu Hurairah that the Prophet said, "No prophet was sent by
Allah except that he was a shepherd. His followers said to
him, *And you?* He said, *And I, I looked after the sheep of the
Quraysh for a few qararit."^ The Quraysh had never expected
1. Al-Pakhrul-Razi, at-Tafsir al-^abir,vol:3 > p *171•» Muhammad/ •'Izzat Darwazah,op.cit.vol'sl,p,153*
2. Surat al-Fajr,17*3. Ibn Hisham, op.cit,p.190. Al-^all al-Baghdadi,ICitab
al-Amali wa an-Hawadir,p .199•— — — — —4. Al-Biyar Bakr i, Tarikh/(Kham;t\S s, vo1:1,p .259• Ibn Majah, Sunan,
vols2,p,727* Taj al-’Arus,vols5,p.304*
-.119-
that the Prophet of the Arabs would he a man who had worked at
a job despised by society. So Muhammad1s occupation as a shep
herd* was one of the reasons for the Quraysh*s rejection of
his prophethood.
3. The Resurrection and the hereafter
Islam emphasizes the idea of resurrection* It declares
that Allah with His unlimited power and might will resurrect
men from their graves and repay them for what they have done
during their life time on the Day of Judgement. Those who have
d'one good will be rewarded, and those who have done bad will
receive the same. Allah gives several names in^Vvc.-*Qur*an to
the Day of Judgement, yaum al-Akhirah, yaum al-akhir, yaum
al-qiyamah, yaum al-Ba'th, yaum al-Fasl, yaum al-Hisab, yaum-* •al-Jami*, yaum al-Talaqi, yaum al-Sasrah, yaum al-A'zifah, yaum
KVi wal-Sakl^ah, yaum al-Hashr, yaum al-Qari'ah, yaum at-Taghabun.
The Quraysh did not believe in the Resurrection and the
Hereafter. Allah says in tVie:Qur*an, "They said, what!' when we
die and become dust and bones, can we really be raised up-• ..1again."
"There is nothing but our life in this world, we die and we2live and we shall never be raised up again."
1 . Shrat al-Mu1minun,52.2. Ibid,37.
‘"The unbelievers think that they will not be raised up. Say,
no, my Lord will surely raise you up and then will tell you of
"And they said, what, if we are bones and dust, shall we be
"And if you say, you will be raised up after your death, the
The Quraysh believed that the souls of the dead; would
sible for the deadj to be raised up again after being formed
into these two birds. Shaddad ibn al-Aswad ibn ®Abd Shams ibn
The Prophet tells us that we will live , and how can there be
life after being sada and hamahi.
hadithu lchuraf at in ya Ufrima 1Amriu
Life and then death and then resurrection, talk of nonsence,
c<5'i Umnr'. 1 Amr A \
1. Surat at-Taghabun,7*2. " al-Isra*,49*3. Hud, 7.4. Al-Alusi,op.cit.vol!2,p .213. 5* Ibid,p,213.
1what you did, and that is easy for Allah."
raised up in a new creation."
v 3unbelievers will say, this is only manifest magic
turn into al-hamah and al-sada, and to them it would be impos-
Malik says this verse,
yuhaddithuna 1-rasulu bi*an sans
wa kaifa hayatu asda'in wa hami
Another poet says,*^ Aw/l- fA.U;hayatun thumma mautun thumma nashrun
There were of course some Arabs who believed in Resurrection and the Day of Judgement.'* This "belief could he spotted
clearly in some of their poetry. Such is the verse of Umayyah
ibn Abi al-Salt when he says,wa yaumm mau* idihim an yuhsharu zumaran C. )
yaumu t—taghabuni idh la yanfafu 1-hadharu#
And the day of their appointed time wherp they are gathered in
groups b.n the day of Taghabun,where ^rrefeemVbn is of 110 avail.
The Insulting Verses
The Prophet1s call to monotheism was a new idea to the ma
jority of the Quraysh as well as of the Arabs. There x-jere on
ly a few of them who had the idea of believing in one God.
They were the Hunafa1.'*' One of them, Zaid ibn 'Amr ibn Nufail,
was killed by his own people when trying to tell them that what2 . .they worshipped was wrong. To the Quraysh, their own religion
did not give them a clear idea of what they believed, and where
they would stand if it were criticised, as they only followed
what their ancestors had done, and none of them were really keen- 3on discussing and defending it. Allah says in tVAlMQur'an,
"Blit they said, we found our fathers following a certain reli
gion, and we guide ourselves by their footsteps.'"
1. Refer to previous chapter.2. Ibn Hisham,op.cit.p.235*3. Surat al-Zukhruf,22.
- 1 2 2 -
The emergence of Islam and its critic of their religion opened
their eyes and brought them together in defending it. Their
status and influence in religion, as dwellers of the Haram,.
would diminish if Islam were accepted by the Arabs. So Muhammad• •
had to be stopped from spreading his message and converting
other tribes to Islam.
ciAllah revealed the'verses criti^sing the Quraysh and what
they worshipped. Allah says,
"Ts it not to Allah that sincere devotion is due, but those
who take for protectors other than Allah, we only serve them'
that they may bring us nearer to Allah. Truly, Allah will jud-1ge between them in what they differ."
"And they worship besides Allah things for which no autho
rity has been sent down to them and of which they have no know-2ledge, fox* those that do wrong there is no helper."
"And they have taken (other) gods beside Allah, in order
that they may be helped. It is not in their power to help
them, but they (the worshippers) are unto them a host in arms."
"And they worship other than Allah that cannot harm and
profit them and they say, those are our intensessors with God."^
1. Surat az*-Zumar,3.2. " al-Hajj,71•3. "' Ya sin,73,74.4* " Yunus,18.
-123-
"And those who call other than Allah, “they do not create
anything and they themselves are created. They are dead and1not alive, and they do not know when they will he raised up."
’’And they took other than Allah, gods that create nothing
and they themselves are created,. They do not possess the power
either of harming or benefiting themselves and they have no2power over death, life and resurrection."*^
•'Do they indeed associate with Allah things that can create
nothing hut which are themselves created. They are unable to
give them any help, nor can they help themselves. And when
you call them to guidance, they will not obey you. It is all
the same to you whether you call them or you keep quiet. Those
whom you call besides Allah are servants like you. Call upon
them and they will answer if you are truthful, ^o they have
feet to walk with, or hands to lay hold with or eyes to see
with, or ears to hear with, say, call your partners and plot
against Me. You will be given no respite. My protector is
Allah who revealed the Book and He will choose the righteous.
And those whom you call besides Allah are unable to help you3nor can they help themselves."K
"Say, shall we indeed call other than Allah things that
can do us no good and no harm and turn on our heels after being
1• Surat al-Nahl,20,21.*2. "' al-Iilurq,an, 3.3. M al“ *A'raf,191-7•
guided by Allah, like the one who was deluded in the world by
shayatin, bewildered, he has friends who call him to guidance,*come to us, say, Allah*s guidance is the only guidance, and we
have been directed to submit ourselves to the Lord of the world,1
"And they worship other than Allah things that do not bring
them good nor harm and the unbeliever is the supporter of evil2against his Lord,"
"The parable of those who took other than Allah as their
protectors is that of the spider that built a house, the weak-pwW)est of houses is the spider*s house, if they^knew."^
The verses not only criticise and insult the Quraysh and
what they worshipped, but also give a very unpleasant picture
of the Quraysh. Allah says,
"You and what you worship other than Allah are stones of
the hell, to it you will come."^
"Or do you think that most of them listen or understand,5 :they are only like cattle, indeed they are more astray."
"And those whom Allah guides, and He is the true guidance.
And those who go astray, they will find no protedJtor besides:
Him, and We will gather them on the day of judgement, on their
1. Surat al-An'am,71*2. "'1 al-Furqan, 55 •3. " al-1Ankabut,41•4 • " al-Anbiya *,98•5. " al-Furq.an,44«
-125-
faces, "blind, dumb and deaf. Their abode is hell, We will increase for them the fierceness of the fire."^
The Quraysh regarded all the verses mentioned above as an
insult to them, their ancestors and their idols. They were
angered b y - Q u r ’an's criticism of themselves. Among them,
the wealthy and the powerful, they took a firm decision that
they would use x-rtiatever means of persuasion and force to stop
Muhammad from spreading the religion of Allah.
Quraysh's Movement against the Prophet
The Meccans were worried when they witnessed Muhammad's
achievement in converting his people to Islam, especially after2the acceptance of it by Hamzah ibn 'Abd al-Muttalib and 'Umar
• • •- v 3ibn al-Khattab of banu ' A&yy, Both Hama ah and 'Umar were young,
• • «i
strong and brave. The sources relate that none of the Quraysh
were brave enough to come out and face 'Umar when he openly
announced his acceptance of Islam in front of the Quraysh who
1. Surat al—Isra',9T*2. Hamzah ibn 'Abd al—Muttalib was the Prophet's uncle. He
accepted Islam six years a,fter the revelation. How he accepted it is clearly explained in Sirat Ibn Hi sham’, vol si, p. 291.
3. 'Umar ibn aMChattab came from bani 'Adjy. This clan was not* «classed as an important one in Meccan sodiety. The story of his conversion to Islam is related in Birat Ibn Hisham, volsl, P.355.
]were sitting around the Kafbah.
From the time he started preaching Islam, the Prophet was
protected by his uncle Abu Talib, although the latter was not:
himself a Muslim, He was: also protected by his wife’s position
in society-., With Hamzah and ’Umar on his side, the Prophet’s
and his followers* position became stronger. It is related on
the authority of Ibn Mas’ud that it was after Umar’s acceptance
of Islam that the Muslims were brave enough to go out and pray2beside the Ka’bah.
The Quraysh made certain plans to stop the Prophet from
continuing his mission. They put forward suggestions which
they thought would attract the Prophet and silence him from
mentioning their idols and ancestors. They not only used their-
tongues in accusing the Prophet and his followers but used
their hands as well to torture the Muslims, in the hope that
after being hurt they would return to their former religion1*.
Quraysh’s first movement - meeting with Abu Talib
As Abu Talib was the only person from Muhammad’s relatives
who had given his full support to the Prophet and had stood firm
ly beside him, the Quraysh*s first step was to approach Abu
Thlib and persuade him to stop his nephew saying what he had
1. Ibn Hisham,vol:l,p,363. 2„ Ibid,p,355;*
said, and doing what he had done. A group of prominent Quraysh;
consisting of *Utbah and Shaibah, sons of Rabi*ah ibn *Abd
Shams- Abu Sufyan ibn Harb ibn Ufnayyah, Abui 1-Bakhtari al-*As'♦ *
ibn Hisham, al-^swad ibn al-Muttalib ibn Asad ibn *Abd al-'Uzsa,• •
Abu Jahl *Amr ibn Hisham ibn al-Mughirah, al—WalTd ibn al—Mughirah,
Hubaih and Munabbih sons of al-Hajjaj ibn *Amir and al-*As ibn*»- ~ 1 — — — - Wa*il ibn Hisham, went to Abu Talib and said, "Oh, Abu Talib*,1
• *■
your nephew has abused our gods, condemned our religion, dis*s~
graced our culture and deceived our fathers. Either you pre
vent him from doing so, or leave the matter between him and us-.
Ybu are as we are, against him and we have had enough of him.
Abu Talib answered them politely and they went away.
Seeing that their first move did not affect Muhammad*s* ■
mission in the least, the Quraysh went to Abu Talib agaiii and
said what they had said before, adding that they would put down
both Muhammad and Abu Talib if he did not stop his nephew from »* •doing what he was doing. They would do anything until either1
3group was destroyed., The Prophet adhered to what he had been
ordered by God to do. Islam flourished among the Quraysh and
some other tribes. Abu Talib sensed the enmity of his people0
1 . Ibn Hi sham,op.c it.vol si,p .265•2. Ibid,p.263.3. Ibid,p.263* Abu 1-Fida*, al-Mukhtasar f1 akhbar al-bashar,
vol *1, p. 263.,
towards the Prophet and himself, and tried to persuade the
Prophet to stop calling his people to Islam, hut the Prophet
insisted that he would not leave the duty imposed^lipon him until
the religion he preached was established or he himself des*»
troyed. The Prophet*s firm stand encouraged Abu Talib to go«
on supporting, for he said, "Go my nephew, and say what yoti like1'by Allah I will never surrender you to anyone."
Knowing that Abu Talib would not use force against Muhammad • * •
they went to Abu Talib again for the third time. This time they
took with them *Umarah ibn 1-Malid ibn 1-Mughirah, who was said2to be the most handsome young man of the Quraysh*, They wanted
to exchange Muhammad for *Umarah. They would take Muhammad and * *kill him, while Abu Talib would take *Umarah and adopt him.
xThey said, "This is a man for a man."^
It is obvious that the Quraysh*s suggestion of the exchange
of Muhammad for*Umara.h was not a wise one. It shows their stu-
pidity and foolishness, for nobody, however stupid, would ac
cept the offer* So Abu Talib rejected the Quraysh*s offer and
said, "Will you give me your spn, so that I may feed him for
you and I give you mine to be killed. This will never be."^
1. Ibn Hisham,op.cit,vol:1,p.264*2. Ibid,p.265. Al-Huwairi,op.cit.vol:l6,p.200.3. Ibn Hisham,op.cit.p.265*4. Ibid.
-129-
The second movement - the violence
Sources related that it was after the third unsuccesful
meeting with Ahu Talib that the Quraysh began to take more1aggressive action against the Muslims, This hostile action
was regarded as the second step of the Quraysh movements against
the Messenger of Allah and his followers. The Quraysh used
every means of persecution towards the Muslims, especailly
those who had no protection from their own tribes. Every family
and tribe tortured their own members who had become Muslims,
Those who suffered most were slaves or mawal1 , Such were Bilal
ibn Ribah, fAmmar ibn Yasir, his parents, IChabbab ibn al-Aratt
and many others.
Bilal ibn Ribah was tortured by his master Umayyah ibn
Khalaf of bani Jumah, at the middle of the day when the ground
was burning hot. He was laid on his back with a giant stone
on his chest and it was said to him, "You will stay like this
until you die or be? unfaithful to Muhammad and worship al-Lat 2and al-^Uzza." It is related on the authority of fAbbas ibn
Hisham^ that *Ammar ibn Yasir, his brother fAbdullah, his father
Yasir and his mother Sumayyah were all tortured by the Quraysh.
Yasir died of turture. '"Abdullah was speared to death, while
1 . Ibn Hisham,op.cit.vols'|,,p.324,2. Ibid,p.325*2. Al-Baladhuri,Ansab al-Ashraf,vol:l,p.l60.
Sumayyah was killed by Abu Jahl. She was the first woman martyr
in Islam. ,Ammar survived the torture. Mhile he was being
tormented by the Quraysh they said to him, "Vie will not leave
you alone, until you abuse Muhammad and say that al-^at and
al-'Uzza are better than Muhammad *5s religion." He said so, and• s
they left him, but his heart was filled with faith in Allah 1and Muhammad.,
Through all this misery the Prophet was protected by his
uncle, Abu Thlib, and the clans of Hashim and *Abd al-Muttalib,
who answered Abu Talib's call for Muhammad*s protection. Theft-
only person who refused to' join his clan in supporting Muhammad- 2 was Abu Lahab.
The Quraysh*s oppression of the Muslims did not give them
a satisfactory result. They could not crush their faith and
bring them back to polytheism, though there were a few Muslims3who forsook their religion because of the severity of the vio
lence. None of the sources mentions the names of those who had
done so •
It is understood from the sources that there t ere only two
alternatives for the Muslims in order to release themselves
1. Al-®aladhuri,op.cit.pp.156-60.N ‘
2. Ibid,230. j Ibn Hisham,op.cit•p.287*3. Ibid,p.364*
from Quraysh*s violence. For the mawali. to he bought and freed
from their polytheist masters as Abu Bakr did for Bilal and
some others. For others, to join the migration to Ethiopia.I1This emigration was sanctioned by the Prophet when he feared
that violence might endanger the Muslims* faith if it was allowed
to- continue.
Seeing that the emigrant Muslims were being treated kindly
by the Ethiopians, the Quraysh took a decision to send a dele
gation to Ethiopia and demand the return of the Muslims to
Mecca. *Amr ibn al— *rA‘s and ‘Abdullah ibn Rabi*ah ibn I-Mughirah^ were sent to Ethiopia, with presents to the Negus and his priests.
The Quraysh*s arrival in Ethiopia and their request for the
return of the Muslims to Mecca angered the Negus. He summoned
the Muslims to his court and discussed,the subject with them..^
The Negus was impressed by the Muslims* faith and their opinion
towards him and his peaceful policy towards them. The Quraysh*s-
present were rejected and the mission failed. f!Amr ibn al-*As
and *Abdullah ibn Rabi*ah returned to Mecca empty handed.
I1. At-Tabari,Tarikh,vols2,p.,221.• •
2, Ibid,p.238,3. Ibid,p.335* Hisham,op.cit.volt:;l,pp. 356-7*4* The detailed story of the discussion between the Muslims
and the Negus on the subject of their religion &s related fully in Ibn Hisham,op.cit.vol!:l,pp.358-362. See also pp., llo-l, for Ja'faft-*s description of Islam to the Negus during the discussion.*
—1*3 2—
Third movement - Accusation against the Prophet
The Quraysh plotted severed times to kill the Prophet,
"but he was well protected. He did not suffer any bodily in
jury, but what he suffered most was the Quraysh's accusation
against himself.
They accused him of calling for something which was only
a legend. What Muhammad said was not from Allah but what he
had learnt from a foreigner ('ajami). It was related that there
was a blacksmith in Mecca whose name was Bkl','am.1 He was not
an Arab. The Quraysh saw Muhammad going onto and coming out
of his place and accused him of learning what he said from1 —Bal'am. Allah says in -Qur'an describing Quraysh*s accu
sation against Muhammad,
"And we know well that they say: only a man taught him.
The speech of him at whom they falsely hint is outlandish,-,, and2this is clear Arabic: speech."’ Allah says in other verses,
"Those who disbelieve says This is only a lie that he has
invented and other folk have helped him with it, so that they
have produced slander and a lib. And they says Fables of the
men of old which he has had written down so that they are dic-3tated to him morning and evening.
1. Al-Isa-fbah fi Ma'rifat al-sahabah,volsl,p.l65*• * 12.* Surat al*»Nahl,103*3. Surat al-Furqan,4?5*
-133-
Muhammad was accused of "being a sorcerer, a magician,
The accusation resulted from a meeting of a number of prominent
Quraysh to discuss what they would say to the Arab tribes about
Muhammad when they came for the pilgrimage, Al-Walid ibn al-
Mughirah, an elderly Quraysh from Bani Makhzum, proposed that
they call Muhammad a magician, and say that what he brought *>
was only magic that had divided society and separated families1and tribes from one another:*, Thus when the time for the pil
grimage came, the polytheist Quraysh spread the word that Muhammad*was a magician and his words were magic. They asked the Araba
to keep away from him, as his words would endanger their whole
system of life. Allah says in the -Qur’an,
"Those who '.disbelieve say of the truth when it reaches them,2This is only manifest magic.Ilf“ In another verse Allah says,
"And when the truth came to them they say, this is magic and3,we do not believe in it,"
The: Quraysh also accused Muhammad of being a madman, a liar,
a1 poet and a soothsayer.^- ^any verses of IVvA-Qur1 an obviously^
relate all the Quraysh1s accusations against Muhammad,. Allah
says,
"And warn by the grace of Allah, you are neither a soothsayer,
1. Ibn Hisham,op.cit.volsi,p,289.2• Surat Saba1,43 •3. Surat ISukhruf ,30,4. Ibn Hisham,op.cit,vol:l,p.308.
-1’34-
1>nor a madman."
"Have they not thought there is no madness in their friend,2he is only a plain warner."
3"And your friend is not mad."
"You are not, with your ^ord^ grace upon you, a madman."^
Allah says, "And they say, shall we forsake our gods forRa mad poet."
"And they marvel at a warner who has come to them from
among themselves. The unbelievers said, this is a sorcerer,
a liar. Did he make gods into one God. This is an astounding
thing.
"That indeed is the speech of an illustrious messenger.7It is not a poet*s speech. Little do you remember.1"
"Has the reminder been given to him alone among us, nay<\Y\ Ql
he is insolent liar."
"And if they deny you, those before them also denied.
Their messengers came to them with clear proofs and with theQPsalms and the Scripture giving light."
1• Surat at-Tur,29 ** ■
2. 1,1 al~*A*raf,l84.3. " al-Takwir,22.4. al-Qalam,2.5. ,? as-Saffat, 36.6. " Sad,4.7. M al-H&qqah,39-418. "' al-Qamar,25>26.9. 111 Patir,25*
-135-
"But they say, these are only muddled dreams. He has hut
invented it. He is hut a poet. Bring us sign as was sent toTthose messengers before."
Besides -VYte-Qur1 an there were many events which were related
in the sources in connection with the Quraysh*s accusations
against Muhammad. It is related; that the Prophet was preaching
Islam in the market of Bhu 1-Majaz. In his sermon the Prophet 2said, "0, people, say there is no €jod hut Allah and you will
sucoeed," The people gathered around him and when he had fin-- 3ished^Ahu Lahab said from behind, "He is a sabian liar."' On
another occasion it is related that the Prophet went out one
day and whoever met him on that day accused him of being a
liar.^ This particular incident hurt the Prophet considerab
ly so that he had to go home and wrap himself in- his blanket.
le.v/e-V&4On top of all accusationssivti.d against him, the Prophet was
also required by the Quraysh to bring miracles to them. AH'
the prominent Qurayshis who were against the Prophet, met one
day beside the Ka*bah and decided that they would call the
Prophet and talk to him about what was going on between him
1. Surat al-Anb iya *!,5•2. Ibn Kathir, al-bidayah wa an-nihayah,vols 3 > P •1393. Ibid.4. Ibn Hisham,op.cit.volsi,p. 310.
TVve. AVv£_ duVAVl
and themselves'. So they called him and he eagerly answered
their invitation, thinking that they would accept Islam and
leave their polytheistic belief. When he came they offered him
wealth, status and said, "If it is wealth that you want, we
will collect it from all of us until you are the richest mani
among us. If it is position that you ask for, we will make
you our leader, and if you want to be king, we will make you- 1so.," The Prophet rejected all their offers, ‘ They then
asked the Prophet to remove the hills and make their country
wider, to make rivers flow in their country like the rivers
of Syria and Iraq, to resurrect their ancestors and among
those resurrected should be Qusay ibn ICilabj, who would tell9>
them whether what Muhammad preached was right or wrong, if he
said it was true, then only would they believe in Allah and re-2cognise Muhammad as the Messenger of Allah*
When the Prophet told them that he vjas not sent to do- what
they had asked him to do for them, they asked him to request
Allah to build for him palaces, gardens and to give him trea
sures of gold and silver.. The Prophet answered them, "1 will
not do that and I. am not the person who will ask his Lord for
that .-Ul
I ., Ibn Hi sham, op. c it .vol: 1, p . 316 .2. Ibid, p. -316.,
al-Muwairi, op• cit .vol: 1’6,p.215 •
-137“
A tradition relates that Atm ^ahl^said to the Prophet,
"Bring* "back to life two or three men from our ancestors who
have died. You are most honoured before Allah, you are not
less loved by Allah than 'Isa, as you say, and 'Isa did that..
Will you make subservient to us the wind that will take us to.
Syria in' a day and bring us back in another day. The long jour
neys tires us. You are not less loved by Allah than Sulaiman
and he commanded the wind and in the morning it covered him a
month's journey and in the evening the same.," To. both requests
the Prophet answered that he was not able to do that. Abu Jhhl
said, "If you refuse to do anything that I have asked you, do
not say bad things of our gods.,"
InIbfer-^ur'an Allah confirms that the Quraysh requested
miracles and says,
"And they said, we will not believe in you until you cause
a spring to gush> forth from the earth for us, or you have a
garden of date-palms and grapes, and cause rivers to gush forth
therein abundantly, or cause the sky to fall on us in a piece,
as you asserted or bring Allah and the angels as guarantors,
or have for yourself a house of gold, or ascend into the sky,
1. His name is 'Amr ibn al-Mughirah from ban! Makhzum. He was called Abu 1—Hakam before Islam, but was called Abu Jahlby the Prophet after Islam. The Prophet said, "Whoever calls Abu Jahl, Abu 1-Hakam, has made a mistake and must ask Allah for forgiveness."'
2. Al-Baladhuri, op,cit .vol:l,p.I26.
and we shall not believe in your ascension till you bring down
for us a book we can read. Say glory to my Lord, I am only aTmortal messenger."^"'
In another verse Allah says, "And they said, what is this
messenger who eats food and walks in the market. Why is an
angel not sent to him to be a warner with him. Or why is a
treasure not sent down to him or a paradise made for him so
that he can eat there-P.r.'O'm, And the wrongdoers said, you1 are2but following a man bewitched."1
The Quraysh a,Iso mocked at the Prophet, sneered at him and
scoffed at what he said from •thfc'-’Qur*an.. A tradition records
that Ufnayyah ibn Khalaf of the banl Jumah always mocked the3whenever he saw him.' Allah revealed, "Wailun li lculli huma-
Batin l u m a z a h . Wail to every slandering traducer.
It is related that an-Nadar ibn al-Harith al— 'Abdari, one• •
of the scoffers, who was said to have read the books of the
Persian? and mixed W with Christians and J'ews,^ said to the
Prophet^after finishing his story, "Which of us is a better
narrator? Me or Muhammad?' and continued saying, "Muhammad has*
5come to you with tales of the ancients."^ Allah says,
1. Surat al-Isra*',90-94*2. "! al~Furqan,7-8 .3. Ibn Iiish^m, op .cit .vol si, p. 382.4* Al-Baladhuri,op.c it.vols1,p.139•5. Ibid,l’4o*
TocV: - a vv\ yie\\«
-1'39-
"And when our revelations are recited ter them, they say,
we have heard. If we wish we can say the same thing, his is1only faMes of the ancients."
- - 2 The Prophet recited to al-Walid ibn al-Mughirah, who wasite,
sitting with him and some other Quraysh^in the mosque, a verse
of tVvfe*-’Qur1 an which says,
"You and what you worship besides Allah are fuel of hell,3to which you will come-".
Al-WalTd then told 'Abdullah ibn Agatha'ra that Muhammad had
said that they and what they worshipped would be the fuel of
hell. 'Abdullah ibn Azjsiba'ra said, "Ask Muhammad, is every
thing that is worshipped going to helljwith those who worship
it. Me worship angels, the Jews worshipped fUf2*air and the
Christians worship 'Isa ibn Maryam."^ Allah revealed on the
subject, "Those to whom kindness has gone forth before from us,r
they will be far removed from there (hell)?,
Ubayy ibn Khalaf came to the Prophet with pieces of broken
bones and said to him, "You say that Allah will bring back life
to these bones?"'^ The Prophet said, "Yes I say that, Allah will
1. Surat al-Anfal,31•2. Al-Walid ibn al-Mughirah ibn 'Umair ibn Makhzum, one of the
richest men of the Quraysh. The Quraysh covered the Ka'bdh one year and he alone would cover it for another year.
3. Surat al-Anbiya1,98.4. Ibn Hisham,op,cit.volsi,p.385*5. Surat al-Anb iya',101,6. Al—B aladhur 1, op. c it. vol s 1, p . 137.
resurrect them and you after being broken like this and then1He will put you into hell.'1 Allah says, "And he has coined
for us a similitude, and has forgotten the fact of his creation,
saying, who will revive these bones when they have rotted away*
Say, He will revive them who produced them in the first place,2for He is the Knower of every creation."'
There are many more verses in thfe^Qur1 an telling how the
Quraysh mocked at Muhammad, tKA-Qur'an and the Muslims. In
Surat al—Taubah Allah says,
"And if you ask them, they will say, we only talk and jest.
Say, was it at Allah and his revelation and his Messenger that
you%did scoff."
"Messengers have been derided before you, but the scoffers
were hemmed in by the thing that they mocked."^
"But the evil—result of their deeds overtook them, and that5at which they had scoffed hemmed them in."
"Ah, thse anguish for my servant. Never does a messenger6come to them but they mock him."
The Quraysh had offered the Prophet wealth, dignity and
honour. They had offered him leadership and*kingship, but
1. Ibn Hisham,op.cit.p.387.2. Surat Yasin,78—9.3. " al-Taubah,65.4. " al—A n 1am,10.5. " al-Nahl,34.6. ." Yasln,30.
they were rejectedjtotally by the Prophet. They had accused him,iabused him, hurteji him mentally and physically, and asked him
to bring miracles from Allah, but all their efforts resulted
in failure. The Prophet continued with haas message, more and
more people from Quraysh and other tribes accepted Islam.
Finally, the Quraysh, led by al-Walid ibn al-Mughirah, al-l!As1ibn Wail, al~Aswad ibn al-Muttalib and Umayyah ibn Khalaf, met
« *>
the Prophet and suggested to him that he worship their gods,
al-Lat and al-^Uzza for a year and they would worship Allah for
a year*,;i . • ’ . . •' ••• Allah revealed
to the Prophet,
"Say, you unbelievers, I shall not worship what Jrourwofcship,
nor will you worship what I worship, and nor that I the worship
per of what you have worshipped, and nor that you will worship2what I worship. For you your religion and for me my religion."
At-Tabari commented' on the last verse, lakum dinukum (you have
your religion), you will never leave your religion because it
has been stamped on you and you will die in that religion.
Waliya din ( and I my religion), I will never leave it, for it
has been in Allahfs knowledge that I will never exchange it for
another.
1• At-Tabarl,Tafsir,vol:30,p.331. • •
2. Surat al-Kafirun.3. At-Tabari,Tafsir,vol:30,p .3 31.
-142-
The emigration to Ethiopia was not an end to the continuous
conflict between the Prophet and his polytheist rivals. The
persecution of the Prophet and his followers in Mecca went on..
The Muslims stood firm and cotirageous behind their Prophet
against every possible means of persecution and violence* Islam
spread, and the Muslims1 position became stronger and stronger
with the conversion of more people to its fold,
A' further step was taken by the Quraysh to paralyze the
Muslims. The Quraysh managed to bring together all the clans
against banu Hashim and banu al-Muttalib. They wrote an agree-• •
ment that no marriage would occour between them and banu Hashim
and banu al-Muttaldb, and 110 trade would commence between them• 9
I -and the two clans. The agreement was written by Mansur ibn2*Ikrimah, stamped and kept in the Ka*bah.
The mot5.ve of the boycott was apparently religious,
against Muhammad and Islam, but politic cxl issues were also in>-
volved. The boycott was not against Muhammad and Muslims as
a whole, for the boycott was purposely focuscdd against banu
Hashim, and banu al-Muttalib only, while the Muslims consisted• •
of various clans of the Quraysh. It is clear that the Quraysh1s
1'. At-Tabari, op.cit .vol: 2,pp,335-“6.* •
2. Ibn Hisham, op.cit .vol: 2,p.l6.»
-143-
chiefs who masterminded the boycott were aware that the sprea
ding of Islam among the Quraysh and other tribes of the Arabs,
with the Prophet of Islam, who was from banu Hashim, might-
possibly strengthen banu Hashim*s power and position among the
Arabs.1The boycott was maintained for over two years, but the
effect on banu Hashim and banu al-Muttalib was not as what had.
been expected,*, since various members of the boycotting clans
were related to banu % s h i m by marriage. They would undoubted
ly give banu1. Hashim every possible help that was needed. On
the same account.Muslims of other clans and tribes who were
not included in the boycott and whose- trade activities were
not restricted, would of course offer any kind of assistance
to their Muslim brothers of banu Hashim and banu al-Muttalib.* *
On the other hand, banu Hashim*s trade was not stopped com
pletely. They still managed to maintain their trading acti
vities with other tribes during the season, although 0.h a very 2small scale.
The boycott was put to an end through the initiative taken
by five prominent Qurayshites. Hisham ibn *Amr ibn Rabi*ah af
1.„ At-Tabari, op. cit ,p,336;.2, Ibn Sa'd,op.cit.vol:l,p.209*
-144“
"banu-! •Amir 11311 Lu*ay, 2uhair ibn Abi Umayyah of banu Malchzum,
Mut*am ibn 1 Adjy of banu Haufal ibn *Abd Manaf, Abu l~Bakhtari— — X'ibn Hisham and 25 am* ah ibn al—Aswad of banu *Abd al— *Uzza.
‘The Quraysh*s boycott on Banu Hashim did not effect the
Prophet as much as the death of his wife, Khadijah bint Khuwailid,
and his uncle, Abu Talib ibn ,!Abd al—Muttalib, which occoured* • •2immediately after the end of the boycott, one after another.
The impact of their death caused great difficulty for the Pro
phet* s mission. Banu Hashim*s support towards the Prophet was
not as great as it was during Abu Talib*s lifetime* Their pro-
tection was lessened to the extent that the Prophet had to ask
projection from other tribes of the Quraysh when he came back
from Taif.» This was due to the realization ibyn banu Hashim
that their support and protection would jeopardize their own
material gains as well as their social status, especially after
the Quraysh*s boycott on them.
The End of the Persecution
The mission to Taif r .. ■ ‘ ‘V ■ "■ ■■
The situation in Mecca did not encourage the Prophet to
spread his mission in it only, but pushed him to widen his
1. Ibn Hisham,op.cit.volsl,pp.397“9* * At-Tabari,op.cit.vols2,y * *
pp.228-9.2. Ibn Hisham,op.cit,vols2,p.25#3. Ibid,p.20, * At-Tabarx,op,cit.vol:2,p.231.
-145-
scope to neighbouring places. The first move was to Taif,
a village of about 60 miles away from Mecca, with the hope that
the Th.aq.if ;would answer his call and accept Islam. The motiva
tion of his choice to go to Taif was not clearly mentioned in• '
the sources. His call for Islam was rejected by the Thaq.if's Ichiefs, and he had to return to Mecca.
After his attempt the Prophet preached Islam among the Arab
tribes of the Peninsula who had come to Mecca for the pilgrimage.
He approached banu Kindah, banu Kalb, banu Hanifah, banu 'Amir'2ibn Sa'sa'ah and other tribes, but almost all of them rejected
• •
his call for Islam, with the exception of the Aus and the Khaaraj
who had willingly accepted Islam and later invited the Prophet
and his followers to immigrate to Madina.
The Hijrah
Realizing that Muhammad was being supported by other Muslims
outside Mecca, and knowing that the Muslims had left Mecca sec
retly to a destination unknown to them, and suspecting that
Muhammad would try to leave Meoca as all the others, the Quraysh
held a meeting at Bar an- adwah and put the Prophet under close
1'. Ibn Hisham,vols2,p.6G&-l•2. Ibid,pp.64-7. %At-Tabarx,op.cit.vol:2,pp.49-50»3. Ibhi Hisham,vols2,p.124-6.
observation a- few days before M s suspected departure. The mee
ting came to a decision that there was no ■-< . alternative in
stopping Muhammad from preaching his message except to eliminate
him.. The decision was taken because of the fact that if the
Prophet was allowed to leave Mecca freely and go to any other
place, his message would continue, as he would never give up
his obligation of preaching Islam, unless he was ordered to do
so by the Almighty. Islam would flourish and the Quraysh1s re
ligion and other beliefs would be doomed. The plan was to use
a number of young men from various clans of the Quraysh to kill
Muhammad at the same time. Thus, none of Muhammad*s relatives
from banu *Abd Manaf would have the ability to avenge his death,
as the killers were not from one particular clan, but from se^1veral of them.
On the very night of Muhammad's emigration, The Quraysh• *
surrounded his house, but he slipped out of the house unnoticed%r--and left ,;Ali ibn Ahrl Talib in his bed. The Prophet was then
joined by Abu Bakr ibn Abi Quhafah, who accompanied him to
Madina,
It is understood from the sources that when the Muslims
emigrated to Madina, all their belongings were left behind in
1. Ibn Hisham,op.cit.vols2,p.126.
-147-
Mecca. That was due to the problem of transporting the belong
ings to Madina as well as the circumstances of the emigration,
which took place mostly in secret, to avoid the Quraysh preven
ting themjioing so. Not only material belongings were left, but
also wives and children*?"
Muhammad's and his followers' migration to Madina stopped
the Quraysh's persecution against himself, his followers and
Islam, but the conflict continued and extended to a larger
scope of confrontation, which included not only spiritual and
physical factors, but also economic and political situations
of both sides of the parties. The decision to emigrate to-
Madina was taken after the Prophet's second meeting with a group
of Madinans (bai'ali al-'Aqabah al-^Flianiah),^ who had come over
to Mecca to proclaim their acceptance of Islam. The reasons
for choosing Madina as the place for the Muslims to In immigrate
to was probably two folds:
1. The acceptance of Islam by the Aus and the IChazraj, gave
the assurance that they would give all assistance to their Mus
lim brothers when they immigrated to Madina. On the other hand
the Prophet was related to one of the tribes of Madina, bani
'AdJV ibn an-Najjar, f o m his mother's side, and he x*as related
1. Ibn Hisham,op.cit.vol:2,pp.144-5-2. The detail story of this Bai'ah is related in Ibn Hisham,
vol:2,pp.81-110.
•bo have visited Madina with his mother when he was still a child1His mother died on their return journey to Mecca.
2. Madina1s geographical situation was good for the Muslims,
as it is situated within the trade route between Mecca and Syria
In this way the Muslims would "be able to establish Madina as
a new trading centre instead of Mecca. Madina is also far from
Mecca which gave a lot of advantages to the Muslims if any
armed clashes might happen.
1. Ibn Hisham,op.cit.vol:l,p.l77r
Al-Mustahgi*un (the scoffers)
Only two of the scoffers are mentioned in tVTe-Qur1 an namely,Aldu Lahab and his wife. The couple are mentioned ifl Surat
Tahhat. Allah says,
•Perish the hand of Ahu Lahah and may he perish. His wealth
and gain will not avail him. He will he plunged into flaming
fire. And his wife as she carries the firewood shall have around
her neck a halter of palm fibre."
There are two different traditions which relate the revela
tion of the surah. A tradition on the authority of Qatadah relate
that Ahu Lahah went to the Prophet and asked him what would he
his reward if he accepted Islam, The Prophet answered, "Like
that given to all Muslims." Ahu Lahah said, "Is not there any
thing better for me?" The Prophet said, "What do you want?"'
Ahu Lahah said at last, "Perish this religion that puts me and1them on the same level."
Another tradition says that the surah was revealed when
the Prophet was commanded to preach his message to his nearest
kinsmen, wa andhir •‘ashirataka 1-aqrabin, When he preached to
them Ahu kahab said, "May you perish for the days to come. Is
this what you call us to?"^ The first tradition is more
1 . At-Tabari,TafsIr,op.cit.vols 30,p.336.« «
2. At—Tabari,Tarikh,op,cit.vols 2,p .319•
-150-
acceptable logically as the reason for the revelation of the
surah. The Message of Allah, in the second tradition, when
the Prophet summoned his nearest kinsmen to Islam, was still
vague to the Quraysh and Islam at that moment was in its early
stages. There was still no opposijMon-' from the Quraysh of any
kind. The event related in the first tradition might have taken
place at any time after the Prophet had proclaimed his mission1,
as the sources do not mention the exact date of the event.
The objectives of Islam were known to the Quraysh, and they knew
who Muhammad1s followers were. Theyr were as mentioned by the *
sources freedmen and slaves as well as confederated of Quraysh,
who were all treated equally in Islam. This equality which does
not give any advantage;? to the rich, the strong and the power*-
ful, made Abu Lahab said his nasty words to the Prophet, for
he enjoyed considerable power in Meccan society.
Abu Lahab*s name was *Abd l-^Usza ibn *Abd al-Muttalib• •1ibn Hashim. He was the Prophet *'s uncle and one of the bravest
and most brilliant ofQuraysh during the Jahiliyah and was said
to be a rich man. His pride and arrogance prevented him from
following the religion preached by his nephew. He was one of
the strongest opponents of Islam and used every possible i;.e . ?r
1. Al“ *Alam,vol:4>PP*134“5*
means of- activity to destroy the Prophet, his followers and
Islam itself. He was the ■ “ only person who did not join his
clan in protecting the Prophet, when the situation of Muslims
was on the brink of destruction* He died a polytheist, shortly1after the Battle of Badr,
His wife who is described in-te^Qur’an as wood-carrier
(hammalat al—hatab), was Umm Jamil bint Harb ibn Umayyah, Abu « # * •
Sufyan’ s sister. Her description as xtfood-carrier was due to
iler performance in carrying thorns and putting them on the path2taken by the Prophet. When she heard of the revelation, she
went to the Prophet, who was with Abu Bakr in the mosque and
said to the latter, as she could not see the Prophet, "Where
is your friend, I have heard that he had slandered me. By3
jp.1 ah I am a poet, and she said the followingr
We disobeyed mudhamm&m^" (Muhammad) We refused his authority
We hated his religion’
Other scoffers whose names are not referred to in •feVik-'Qur *an
x*ere obviously mentioned in history and Quranic commentary
books. The mentioning of the scoffers’ names by historians
1. Ba’irat al-ma’arif al-Islamiyah,subject,alif,volsi,p,395*2. Ibn Hisham,op.cit.vol:l,p.380*3. Ibid,p.381.4* Mudhammim, the name given to the Prophet Muhammad by the
Quraysh which means dispraised, the opposite word of Muhammad.
-19£-
and Quranic commentators is "based on Quranic verses which were
revealed to the Prophet due to particular events and specific
incidents caused by the Quraysh against the Prophet and Islam#
Some verses were revealed specially for some particular indi
viduals, while others were directed at the groups of the Prophet*s
opponents and opposers.
Allah says,
"Woe to each sinful liar, Hejhears the revelations of Allah
recited to him, and then continues in pride as though he does1not hear them, give him tidings of a painful punishment." The
2verse was directed at an-Nadar ibn 1-Harith, who was one of* #
the Prophet *s opponents. Ibn *Abbas related that Allah reveal&d
eight verses in connection with him and his activities against
the Prophet. In another verse Allah says,
"Do not obey each insulting oath-monger^ & slanderer going
about with calumnies^ hindering all good, tresspassing beyond
bounds, deep in sin. Violent with all that, intrusive, even3if he possesses wealth and sons." The revelation of this verse
was related to al-Akhnas ibn Shariq ibn *Amr al—1Thaqafi*^"
Another verse revealed to the Prophet was attributed to al-*As
ibn Wa*il^ Allah says,
1. Surat al-^at hiyah,7,8. .2. Ibn Hisham,op.cit.volsl,p.384.3. Surat al-Qalam,10-16.4. Ibn Hi sham, op. c it .vol:l,p.386. n At-Tabari,Taf sir,vols-29,
• *
pp.14-15.5. Ibn Hisham,op.oit,volsl,p.383.
"Have you not seen him who disbelieves in our revelations
. " ■■ and say, assuredly I shall he given wealth
and children# Has he penetrated to the Unseen or has he made
a pact with the Beneficient? Nay, We shall record what he says
and prolong for him a spa.ii of torment. And we shall inherit1all that he talks of and he will come to Us alone.,,f
In verses directed to groups of scoffers9Allah describes
them in two words? A1-Mu si ah# 1*1321 and al-Muq t as imun. Allah
says,
"For sufficient we are to you against those who scoff, who.
set some other god along with Allah, and they will come to> know"
It is related on the authority of ‘Urwah ibn az-2ubair that
the Mustahzi*un indicated in the verse, were a number of pro
minent personalities from several clans of the Quraysh. They
were al-Aswad ibn *Abd Yaghuth ibn Wahb ibn *Abd Manaf of bani
2uhrah, al-Aswad ibn *Abd al-Muttalib, of bani Asad ibn *Abd• •
l-*Usza, al-Walid ibn al-Mughirah ibn *Abdullah of bani Makhsum,
al-*A's ibn Wail ibn Hi sham of bani Salim ibn *'Amr and al-Harith
ibn t-Pilatilah ibn *Amr of bani Khuza’ah., Allah says-,• • #
"As we sent down for those who make division. Those who
1 • Surat Maryam, 77-802m. Surat al~Bijr,95~6*
•>
3. At-Tabari, Tafsir,vol:14,pp*48-51*
"break the Qur’an into parts. By your Lord, Me shall question
every one of them, on what they used to do.M^ The word al—mug-~ +ha-tasimun in the verse refers to a group of^Quraysh who divided
theamong themselves the duty of preventing^Prophet Muhammad from
preaching Islam during the pilgrimage. During the period, al
most all the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula came to Meoca to
perform their obligation. Muhammad was stopped from reaching2them and preaching to them. According to Ibn ’Abbas the muq-
tasimun were 17 people representing several clans of the Quraysh.
They were three from bani ’Abd Shams, Hanzalah ibn Abi Sufyan,• •
’Utbah and Shaibah sons of Rabi'ah ibn *Abd Shams, seven from
ban! Makhzum, Abu Jahl, al-'As ibn Ma'il, Abu Qays ibn 1-Maii'd,
Qhys ibn Fakih, 2uhair ibn Abi Umayyah, Aswad ibn 'Abd 1-Asad,
and as“$a’ib ibn as- Saify, one from bani ’Abd al-Dar, an-Nadar• 9 « • 9
ibn 1-Harith, two from bani Sahm, Munabbih and Uubaih sons of
al-Hajjaj, and two from bani Jumah, Umayyah ibn Khalaf and Aus9 •
ibn Musir.
Another list of the Prophet's opponents related by Ibn
Sa’d contains the same names mentioned in the list related by
’Urwah and Ibn ’Abbas, with some additional names such as 'U^bah
ibn Abi Mu'it, Umayyah and Ubai/ sons of Khalaf, al-Hakam ibn
Abi l-’AsJC, *Ad|*f ibn al-Hamra’ and some others. Almost all
1, Surat al-Hijr,90~3*»2. Ibn Habib,op.cit.pp.160-1.
the names mentioned in the traditions, hased on the Quranic
verses, were of the same persons, hut there were probably others
who opposed the Prophet and Islam and whose names or deeds are
not mentioned in khT&-Qur * an *
Studying the scoffers names, gives an impression that most
of them were prominent members of society, who possessed wealth
and dignity among their clans. Some of them were members of
bar an-Nadwah, the body responsible for running the Meccans'
affairs. Some of them were close relatives of the Prophet,
such as Abu Lahab, his uncle, al-Aswad ibn 'Abd Yaghuth, his
cousin, Zuhair and 'Abdullah sons of Abi Umayyah, also his cou
sins, sons of his aunt 'Atikah bint 'Abd al-Muttalib* As far
as the sources are concerned none of the Prophet's opponents
were religious men, even though they were very enthusiastic
in defending their religion and almost all of them were merchants
and traders.
The sources relate that nearly all the Prophet's opponents
died in polytheism, except for a few of them who accepted Islam,
when the Prophet conquered Mecca nine years after his migration
to Madina. Among those who accepted Islam were Abu Sufyan ibm
Harb, and al-Iiakam ibn Abi al- *AsJ.• • •
Ih addition to the scoffers there were also poets who used
their skill and talent to satirize the Prophet and Islam.,
A tradition relates that there were three Qurayshite poets who
did so, ’Abdullah ibn az-Ziba'ra, Abu Sufyan al-Harith ibn ’Abd
al-Muttalib and 'Amr ibn l-’As. Nothing of their poetry which*>• T *was sa,id against the Prophet and Islam, during the Prophet’s
mission in Mecca., is to be found in the sources. That, this
is missing shows clearly that the Muslims did not have the least
interest in relating and compiling the satire against the Pro
phet and Islam. What was recorded of their poetry w e t m o s t l y
said after the Battle of Badr and the period after that, but
their satire was answered back by the Muslim poets such as
Hassan ibn Thabit, ’Abdullah ibn Rawahah and ICa'b ibn Malik.
Conclusion,/'
<slo <£>aV 1. The emergence of Islam and its new teaching brought^great
confusion, not only among the Quraysh, hut among the Arabs as
well. Some of them who were annoyed with their ancestors faith
and belief accepted Islam^while the majority of them adhered
to their ancestor&ll creed and created great problems to the
spreading of Islam.
2. The revelation of tk&-Qur*an, as words of Allah, with it per
fection both in content and language, challenged the quality
of the Arabic poetry as well as other branches of its litera
ture. The teaching of -Our * an changed the social structure
of the pre—Islamic society and abolished its faith and belief.
3. The situation of hardship and torture experienced by the
Prophet Muhammad and his followers during the period of his
mission in Mecca,, helped to create^conflict of ideas in the
poetic life of the Arafe&, Meccan in particular, and changed the
features and s$yle of the pre-Islamic poetry from its traditio
nal character and -the: beginning of a new era of ' L
Arabic poetry as well as its literature.
The acceptance of Islam by some of the Arabs, slowed down
the production of ‘ Arabic poetry, especially in Mecca, as
the Muslims were busy defending themselves from the Quraysh's
accusation and learning the new religion as well as remembering
the words of Allah. Ai all. .AyAnlS'. . j, the production of
poetry among other Arabs of the Peninsula was not affected by
the situation in Mecca. The meeting 111 al^aswaq, and the reci
tation of poetry went on as usual.
5. Poetry said in ^ecca, especially during the preaching of
Islam could be classified \<&S>
a. Poetry , against the Prophet and Islam,
b* Poetry sadd in supporting the Prophet and his cotuS'&j.,
a. Poetry . said against the Prophet Muhammad , his
followers and Islam wa;$o composed by the Qurayshl+e poets and
used by them as one of their weapons to attack and assault( p. /56)
Islam. BUt as explained earlier^nothing of their poetry was
recorded, this could be explained in two ways:
i. Ho interest from poetic narrators in relating and
compiling the satire against the Prophet and Islam
ii. The possibility that the Quraysh did not have the’
opportunity of composing any of the poetry due to their great
involvement in persecuting and torturing the Muslims, or the ,
probability that when they accepted Islam, they did not want
to bring back the memory/ of their enmity towards the Prophet and Islam..
b> Most of the poetry related in the sources, which supported
the Prophet and his Islamic course wctSc said ~ ' ' -by Muslim
poets, with the exception of verses said by Abu Talib, the
Prophet's unclef who^ a,s believed by the sources, did not accept
Islam till the end of his life. The poetry was composed largely^
to defend Islam, to show the hatred of idols and cultures of
the pre-I'slamic Arabs and to praise the Prophet. Such were
verses of f,Amr ibn Jhrnah, when he condemned the idols and praised
Islam:^
wallahi lau kunta ilahan lam takun
anta wa kalbun wasta bi'rin fi qaran
uffin limulqaka ilahan mustadan
al-aana fattashnaka fan su'1 lghiban
alhamdulillahi^l-*'aliyi dhi 1-minan
al-wahibm r-razzaqi dayyanir. d~dinhuwa^l-ladhi anqadhani min qabli an
akuna fi zulmati qabrin murtahan •
By Allah if you are the God, it will not be
that you and a dog tied together in the middle of a well
S.kV&Vy\ato the one who formed you and took you as god
now we inspected your stupidity hePraise^to Allah,the Supreme,the Benefector,
ofThe Giver,the Provider^the Godly religion
He, who saves me
from being in the gloomy grave
1• Al“Hamid,op•c it• pv 41
b&£.v\ — —There are few verses rej&afrtea to have^said by *Uthman ibn Maz,run
expressing his emotion to his cousin Umayyah ibn Khalaf who had
persecuted him and made him flee to Ethiopia with other Muslims
wa min dunihi al—sharmani wa 1—birki akta'u
(X^akhrajMnl min batni makkata aminan
wa askantani fi sarhi baida'a tuqdha’u
wa tabri nibalan rishuha laka ajma*u
wa harabta aqwaman kiraman a ,!iasatan
wa- ahlakta aqwaman bihim kunta tafza'u
sata*lamu in nabatka yauman mulimmatun
wa aslamaka 1-aubashu ma kunta tasnaru
0 Taym ibn *Kmr, 3? wonder at him who came with enmity
when the tutoi^and the broad high land lay between us
bid you drive me out of Mecca where I was safe
and make me live in a loathsome white castle.
You feather arrows whose feathering will not help you
you sharpen arrows whose feathers are all for you.
You fight noble strong people
and destroy those from whom you sought help.
You will know one day when misfortune attacks you
and strangers betray you, what you have done.
&pTaimaibn 'Amrin lilladhi ja'a bighdatan
tarishu nibalan lafyuwatlka rishuha
1. Ibn Hisham, op. c it. vol s 1, pp. 3 5 5-6
There are verses recited by Abu Talib praising the Prophet
with the intention of maintaining the unity of his clan in de-1fending the Prophets
* / T \idha y. jtama'at yaumQn.&uraysWtiKi limafkharin CT^vcoi \ )
fa 1Abdumanafin sirruha wa samimuha ,
wa *in hussilat ashrafu ,!abdimanafiha • • .fa fi hashimin ashrafuha wa qadimuha
\<Kwain fakb^arat yauman fainna Muhammadan
huwa 1-mustafa, min sirriha wa kaMmiha • •- fVi ... _ „ta da'at qurayshun gha thulia wa saminuha
'alaina falam tasfar wa hashat hulumuha * * •
If one day Quraysh gathered together to boast?
fAbd Manaf would be their heart and soul.
And if the nobles of 'Abd Manaf were reckoned.?
amongst Ilashim would be their noblest and chief#
If they boast one day, then Muhammad'
would be the chosen noble and honourable one,
Quraysh summoned every one against us
They were not successful and they were besides themselves;.
I. Ibn Hisham,op.cit,vol5l,p,283.
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